QA Pausing a Subscription Rachels Online School

hey guys well I’ve again on Facebook and

I will upload this to YouTube so hello

if you’re seeing this there after the

fact but I’ve been going live a couple

times over the past couple of weeks to

talk about Rachel’s English Academy it

is a an online school that I am

launching next week so over the course

of this week I will be going live a

couple more times to answer your

questions so what I’ve done is I’ve gone

and looked at the past recordings and

I’ve written down your questions that I

didn’t get to in the comments because

it’s very hard to keep up with the

comments as I’m talking and trying to be

coherent so again put your comments here

and I might not read them as I’m going

live I’ll try but I can’t see them all

but I will look at them all after the

video is over so let’s get to some of

your questions first of all maybe this

is your first time hearing about it and

you don’t know what Rachel’s English

Academy is it’s an online school hey

Lucas that I’m launching next week a

week from today actually October 25 and

Lucas who’s commenting right now I

actually gave him an early pass I gave a

couple people an early pass to get

feedback and so he’s one of them so he’s

been in there already and he already

wrote a really nice review thank you for

that Lucas which I got to see a day or

two ago so anyway Rachel’s English

Academy is a set of courses that you can

get to only through a subscription I’m

not making a big course that sells for a

bunch of money it’s a low monthly fee if

you join in the first week it’s $10 a

month for as long as you choose to stay

in the Academy so you get access to all

of these different courses for ten

dollars a month and I I’m starting small

there’s seven courses in there

and some of them are complete or

incomplete but the idea is that each

each month once a month I’m releasing

new lessons and starting new courses so

for example right now there’s a course

and they’re called vowels and diphthongs

and there are three vowels in there and

so next month I might add a couple more

I might start the consonants course but

there’s lots in there to work with it

focuses heavily on conversation and

listening comprehension if you’ve

followed me for a while you know this is

my passion this is what I do best I’m

not a grammar expert I don’t teach

writing but I love the voice and how we

use it I love discovering what’s musical

about our speech and one of the courses

that was really fun to make it’s called

the basics is it uses a lot of other

languages and I use those other

languages to explore English and to find

out English different from other

languages maybe your language not just

as far as the sounds go because that’s

just a small part of it but all of these

other things the feeling the character

of it that’s really what interests me

how we can sound more natural more

conversational when speaking a language

I know when I study a foreign language I

really want to understand the character

of that how to use my body to sound

natural and for me that’s more important

to even than vocabulary it’s just

feeling it inside of my body and and

expressing myself that way so Rachel’s

English Academy focuses on those things

that I love and we do a lot of speech

analysis we study a lot

conversations and there’s a lot of audio

for you to work with and the idea is if

you are my private student this is what

I would be giving you well I’m not

taking private students anymore but this

course is a way to get all of that

information and to access all of that

and there’s also going to be a private

Facebook group for members only in the

Academy and so in that Facebook group

you can post videos I’m going to be

commenting in there a lot you can post

questions and you can also find a

language partner who’s working through

the course to practice with okay so that

is a little rundown of of Rachel’s

English Academy and now I’m going to be

answering your questions first I see one

that’s coming in now on live how can we

get your program well it’s all online

and you can get access starting October

25 next week next Tuesday in the

meantime above this video there should

be a link it’s a bitly link and if you

click on that it takes you to a page

with the countdown timer very exciting

so you can see exactly when the Academy

opens in the meantime there is a yellow

button there that you can click to get

on the VIP list you click that button

and you send your email and I’m looking

at all of these emails as they come in

that is doing something when you send in

your email to get on the VIP list you

should get one email just a little

notification that says you’re in and

then starting October 25 when the school

is available you’ll get a series of

emails reminding you when to buy what

you get if you buy in the first week

because you did get a few extra things

if you buy in the first week and then

also you get the lowest price if you buy

in the first week so if you click on the

link put your name on the VIP list then

you’ll get those emails so that’s how

you join and at that point then on

October 25 if you choose to go ahead and

join the Academy and

your subscription then you get instant

access to the courses that are there and

the lessons that are there and to the

Facebook group and I will be doing a

live class every month but an extra one

after the first week on November 2 we’re

all sort of be talking about the Academy

how to use the lessons how to navigate

and I’ll be answering your questions it

will also be a chance for you to test

out and see the webinar platform that

we’ll be using for our live classes okay

I’m going to get to some of these

questions now someone asked in a

previous video what about canceling and

restarting what happens then okay if you

ever cancel your subscription then if

you choose to restart later then you

just restart at whatever the current

price is so if you cancel then you’re

giving up whatever price you joined at

for example if you join in the first

week your price will be $10 a month and

maybe you decide to cancel in a year

maybe the price has gone up to $18 a

month or something if you cancel and

rejoin them when you rejoin you would

join in $18 a month unfortunately

there’s no way to pause the membership

so once you sign up you just stay in

there until you feel like you’re ready

to be done practicing on your English

and but once you start your subscription

you get access lifetime access to the

Academy at that price so no matter what

happens over time as the price goes up

as there’s more and more content in

there you keep your price for the

lifetime of your subscription payment

okay I have bad news I found out that I

can only accept credit card payments

through this Academy the thing is I

can’t do everything right so I came up I

am using a website platform to build the

online courses because I can’t do all

that myself that’s crazy I can come up

with a lessons but I can’t handle

billing and all of that and everything

so I’m using a platform that does

and to be using a subscription with it

which I’m doing the Academy is by

subscription only they can only use

credit cards as a four month payment so

I know that’s gonna not be good for a

lot of people and a lot of people that

means they’re not gonna be able to get

access so I want you to know that I am

trying to think of other things and one

idea I have is that I will be able to

take payments in another form but it

would be a manual thing you would send

me the payment I would give you access

to the course it wouldn’t be automatic

through the system

so probably the way I would do that is I

would require like six months or a year

at once and then at the end of that if

you want to buy again and you buy again

I wish there was a better way I am

asking the platform to come up with more

payment methods fingers crossed I don’t

know if they’ll ever do it okay someone

asked about test prep and speaking test

prep so there’s nothing and there

specifically about test prep I like the

idea of it and I definitely could see a

future course on that but there’s

nothing aimed at that directly however

every course is aimed at speaking

pronounciation conversation confidence

phrases so if you’re working through

this material and you are improving the

the way you speak how you’re able to

speak more naturally with your flow

you’re finding the American placement

from the conversation studies maybe

you’re picking up phrases that Americans

use when talking about themselves even

though it’s not directly relating to a

particular test question it’s definitely

preparing you for any spoken exam

definitely okay someone says who’s gonna

have direct contact with the students

well that’s me

it’s Rachel’s English Academy and for

now I’m all you get the videos in there

I’ve written and made

and then I’m gonna be the one in the

Facebook group I’m gonna be the one

teaching the live classes so it’s mostly

for self-study and this is something

you’re gonna be working through on your

own I’m gonna be giving you access to

the material and then you’re doing it

I’m not assessing you personally at this

point I would like to get that going at

some point in the future having some

people that can actually give

assessments and check-ins with students

and say you need to work on this a

little bit more or whatever but for now

it’s really a resource for you to work

through on your own with guidance from

me

yeah so I hope that answers that

question

okay someone says I am interested in

joining but I know I’m busy in this

first month I’m gonna be busy in October

and I’m not gonna be able to do all the

lessons will I get behind that’s a good

question yes and no let me explain you

will get behind a little bit in the

sense that there is one class it’s

called the daily plan I almost forgot

the name of the course it’s called the

daily plan and your first day that

you’re in the Academy you only see one

lesson day one the next day another

lesson gets released so on day ten you

have ten lessons so in that respect it

is dripping you content daily so if you

don’t look at it for ten days then there

are those ten days they’re going to kind

of back up now the thing about the daily

plan course is it’s not actually how do

I say this

the lessons in there are not only in the

daily course the daily course each day

it suggests lessons to go work on so it

takes all of the other lessons and all

of the other courses and then suggests

how you would work through them the

they do this this day do that so you can

work with the daily plan but if you

don’t want to if you miss 10 days or

something then you can just go back to

maybe you are working on the basics

course and you decide you want to work

through the whole basics course then you

can come back to that the content isn’t

going away it’s just more is being added

and to be honest I expect most people

are going to be working on it that way

they will be in there they’ll be finding

the courses they really like they’ll

work through them and when they don’t

have time to work for a couple days or a

week they won’t and they’ll come back

and maybe a little review some of what

they already did and they’ll find oh

there’s this new course module I love

this kind of lesson I’m gonna go to

study that but I do suggest the daily

plan it’s suggesting about 20 maybe 30

minutes a day of work that you can do

and it doesn’t just take one course

start to finish another course start to

finish I like to jump around a little

bit and we always tie things back into

each other and we also in the daily plan

into a lot of repetition because if I

just gave you a lesson and I said watch

this and you watched it and that was it

then you know how to talk about

something but you probably don’t know

how to actually do it and I don’t want

this course to be something where you

just get a bunch of information I want

it to be something where you get better

at speaking and so to do that there’s a

huge practice element and so practice is

a lot of repetition so the daily plan is

big on that work on this lesson again do

this again and so it’s looping back so

it’s not just the information it’s the

training as well if you were to get

behind if you were to take a week off

but you’re going through the daily plan

and you want to keep doing that then

when you come back just go back to the

where you left off and maybe try to do

two a day for a while but it’s okay if

you’ve been in the course for

a hundred days but you’re only on day

eighty that’s fine you don’t have to do

do it every day though I will say the

more consistent you are with it the

better your results will be so I hope

that you’re in there

ten minutes a day you know before you go

to bed and maybe you pull out your phone

you look at Facebook you look at

Instagram snapchat whatever what if you

decided I’m gonna take ten of those

minutes and I’m gonna look at the

Rachel’s English Academy I’m gonna watch

a video I’m gonna spend ten minutes

training an audio I’m gonna take one

quiz whatever maybe that can be your

commitment ten minutes of my end of day

phone time goes to Rachel’s English

Academy something like that okay enough

preaching about working every day let me

go on to some other questions that came

in okay someone says Rachel how will you

judge the level of learner well I’m not

actually going to be judging you I’m not

going to be giving you evaluations

that’s not a part of this Academy at

this time so within and the Academy

there are certain things that are going

to be for people who are more advanced

and it says that and but that I was

thinking about this and I want to say

that every lesson does work for every

person your level will determine what

you can take away from it but I would

never say hey you shouldn’t look at this

because it’s not your level you’re still

gonna learn something from it with the

Ben Franklin conversation analysis even

if you’re just watching and absorbing

but you’re not able to repeat it back

it’s not making sense with your mouth

whatever you’re still getting the you’re

still absorbing the information you’re

getting the concepts and that’s the step

one if you’re really advanced and you

get it and you’re pretty fluid with the

language it’s you’re pretty good at you

know flapping your tongue and th sounds

and this kind of thing then you’ll be

able to work with the audio and and

really integrate the phrases into your

body so you’ll have that benefit but if

you’re still not at that if you’re not

at that level yeah it doesn’t mean

you’re not going to benefit so still use

it and that’s one thing that I want

everyone to know is that I do say this

is easier this is harder but if you

think you’re really advanced don’t skip

the easy stuff you’re still going to

learn from that there’s you’re gonna

learn a new phrase for something you’re

going to notice something that oh how

did I miss that before so everything is

for everybody I know that that sounds

like an easy answer to that but I’ve

been teaching pronunciation only for

close to 10 years and it’s true this is

how I’ve been working with people people

at a different level will get something

different out of the exercise but the

exercise isn’t limited by who can see it

okay there’s that okay someone says how

do I join from the u.s. versus somewhere

else doesn’t matter it’s all online so

as long as you have an internet

connection it is an online class so you

have to have a pretty good internet

connection you can download the audio

but you can’t download the video so you

have to be able to go on there and be

able to stream video in order for this

class to be worthwhile for you but if

you have internet access then you can be

anywhere the videos are not YouTube

embeds or anything so you don’t have to

worry about YouTube being blocked or

anything like that all you need is an

internet connection and I know that

that’s not nothing my Wi-Fi in my house

sucks and you know I pay a ton of money

for it and live in a place where it

should be easy to get it so I don’t mean

to say that all you need is an internet

connection I know that that’s that’s not

easy for everybody okay someone said I

signed up for the VIP list but I didn’t

get an email so if you do sign up for

the VIP list which I hope you do link

above it’s a bitly link if you do sign

up for the VIP list

you’ll get one email right away that

says you’re in

and then you won’t get anything until

October 25 so October 25 when the school

opens is when you’ll start getting the

information about getting into the

school for the low price getting that

extra lessons and that kind of thing

someone says will there be a mouth

position videos with the up close stuff

yes there will be so this sounds course

that I’m working on that is partially

complete I’m making videos for the

course that have never been seen before

but I am also using some videos that

have been seen before

why because last year I spent hours

making the set of videos that has

instruction on the mouth illustrations

slow motion up close and eye

those are my best way to teach a sound

right now so there felt like no need to

remake those just for this course what

I’m doing is I’m using those in the

course when I’m adding a bunch of stuff

to it to make what you get in the course

different from what you get anywhere

else in the course you will get extra

videos that are talking about the sounds

and answering questions that I often get

about the sounds and then there’s also

back to what I said earlier the training

aspect in the audio in the vowel and

diphthong course and in the consonants

course there’s an incredible amount of

training audio to work with as I said I

do not want you to take this course just

to learn information I want you to be in

the Academy because you’re going to get

better at speaking and that’s only gonna

happen with the training so it’s on me

to be providing you with all of the

training material that you need and that

is what I’m doing so yes there is that

video of the up-close slow-motion speech

in the Academy okay someone says when

are the Goliath classes so the first one

is November 2 this is the extra one the

bonus one that I’m doing

people who sign up in the first week

it’s at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and

I’m not sure what time we’ll end up

choosing for the the monthly life class

I think that’s gonna depend sort of on

who’s in the class and what time zones

and time slots work for the Academy

members someone says okay paying

month-to-month is there an option to pay

for like a whole year at once no not

currently and that’s you know the good

news is you can cancel at any time the

the reason why I’m doing that is because

one other time I offered people a one

month subscription or a six month

subscription and in 6 months when those

people got billed again they were like

what the heck Rachel they forgot that it

was a subscription and so I decided just

for ease of use there is just one option

it is a monthly subscription your credit

card will be charged every month also I

just want everyone to know that I know I

can sit here and answer questions and

explain things but there’s no really

getting it until you’re in there and so

if anyone gets in there and spends time

in there and feels like this isn’t

actually what I wanted there is a 30-day

money-back guarantee so if you’re in

there for 30 days or less you decide you

don’t like it you just let me know and

I’ll cancel your subscription and I’ll

refund your first month so you will not

have paid anything okay that’s all of

the questions that I had on my little

note card from previous videos I am just

glancing down through the comments and

if I see anything that’s related to the

to the school I’ll answer it

and I also just wanted to say I posted a

new video today did you check it out

it’s about the elections in the United

States which are happening very soon the

last debate is Wednesday that’s tomorrow

yeah anyway check out the video I

explained how to pronounce Trump and how

they pronounce Clinton if that’s

interesting to you and then I also ask

you guys to make a video talking about

your thoughts about the election if you

care to share I think that that will be

really fun to see everyone’s videos yeah

okay Lucas says there will be no

students winning their money back

because the school rocks Lucas I love

you Lucas as I said at the beginning of

this live video is one of just a handful

of students who I gave access to the

school early to and I did that so that I

could get feedback they could see what

was like tell me what they thought about

it yeah

so I think that I’m seeing some

questions come in that are related to

things that I’ve already said I don’t

want to make this video too repetitive

so I think I’m gonna cut it off and I

will go live again later this week and I

will read all of these comments and I’ll

be answering questions that have come in

in in another live video but for now I’m

gonna sign off but first I just want to

say aside from Rachel’s English Academy

how are you guys how’s life it’s a

beautiful day here in Philadelphia we’ve

had three days in a row of just gorgeous

weather you just want to be outside all

the time I unfortunately have been

inside most of the time I’ve been

planning ahead for this course for

months and I’ve been working on stuff

but still always towards the end of a

project there’s so much to do and I’ve

been up working until 10:00 or 11:00 at

night which is actually not unusual for

me I’m a night owl I love working at

night it’s when I really get focused but

since I had my baby in January that has

not been an option because if I don’t go

to bed early

I don’t sleep he’s up early he’s up in

the mill then I blah blah blah anyway

the point is all I’ve been doing

is either working or taking care of the

baby for the past few days so I haven’t

really been able to enjoy the sunshine

too much which is sad but you know I’m

yeah I just

I’ve been over these past couple months

as I’ve been working on the course and

I’ve been getting really excited about

what’s in there I’ve just been feeling

really thankful for for you guys and you

know there’s no point in making a school

if there’s no one to be in it so I’m

just I’m glad that you found me it’s

awesome yeah so I just wanted to add

that there at the end make this video

not all about business okay so that’s it

guys thanks for sticking with me a

hundred and thirty-one people watching

this that’s pretty exciting

this video will stay on the Facebook

page so if you joined at the end and you

wanted to see some of the answers to

some of the questions you can go back

and watch it don’t be afraid to share it

and definitely get on that VIP list the

link is above the video it’s free to

become a VIP you are not obligated to

buy the Academy’s subscription when it’s

available it’s just a way for you to

know when it’s available and what all

you get so that’s it guys great chatting

with you love seeing the hearts and the

likes go across the screen love reading

your comments after the video that’s it

okay here’s a little height of Raziel

high fours ill okay that’s it guys see

you