Are you at a stage in your life where you have some ideas, possibly vague at this point, for starting a new “business” in a new direction? This course, spanning 7 sessions over a period of 6 weeks, will help you identify a new calling, discern and validate whether it is a good idea and a fit for you, and learn how to set it up and launch it into the world.
Since turning 60, I have launched 4 new businesses, sold 3 of them, and started 3 more (and survived cancer twice). I would like to help you pursue your own dream of setting up and running your own business – one that embodies what you are being called to do.
Here is the course agenda (all end times are approximate):
- Class 1: Thursday October 10, 2 – 4:30 PM Eastern
- Introductions, Why you are here, Why I am here
- Assessing your strengths, assets, and risks
- Discerning your calling
- Homework assignments
- Discussion 1: Thursday October 24, 2 – 3:30 PM Eastern
- Readout and discussion of your homework assignments
- Class 2: Tuesday October 29, 2 – 4:00 Eastern
- Formulating your business idea
- Validating your business idea
- Homework assignments
- Discussion 2: Thursday November 7, 2 – 3:30 Eastern
- Readout and discussion of your homework assignments
- Class 3: Tuesday November 12, 2 – 4:00 Eastern
- Setting up your business
- Launching your business
- Class 4: Thursday November 14, 2 – 4:00 Eastern
- Running your business
- Troubleshooting your business
- Discussion 3: Tuesday November 19, 2 – 3:30 Eastern
- Discussion of your next steps
All classes and discussions will be recorded for your viewing in case you cannot attend them all.
Registration for the course is only $99. You can pay here – that is all you need to do to register. (Credit cards, debit cards, or PayPal are accepted; all payments are processed through PayPal). After you pay, an email confirmation will be sent to the name and email address you enter into PayPal (or the one associated with your PayPal account) within a few days. If you need to change the name or email address please let us know here.
To give you an idea of how much of a bargain this is, here is a similar course. Their cost is:
- Annual Income under 50K – $1,099
- Annual Income between 50K-75K – $1,299
- Annual Income above 75K – $1,499
Please note: our course does not offer legal, financial, tax, insurance, or investment advice – see your lawyer, CPA, insurance agent, or financial advisor for those services. By registering, all course participants agree to abide by our Code of Conduct and Release Agreement
About the instructor
Brian Allain leads Find Your Next Calling and How to Heal Our Divides. Previously he founded Writing for Your Life, a resource center and conferences for spiritual writers, Publishing in Color, a conference series intended to increase the number of books published by spiritual writers of color, and Compassionate Christianity, a resource center for progressive Christians. Writing for Your Life and Compassionate Christianity are now owned by Kate Rademacher, and Publishing in Color is now owned by Joyce Dinkins. Previously Brian served as Founding Director of the Frederick Buechner Center where he led the launch of Mr. Buechner’s online presence and established several new programs and strategic partnerships. Brian has developed and led spiritual writers conferences at Princeton Theological Seminary, Drew Theological Seminary, Western Theological Seminary, the University of Southern California, Belmont University, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, the United Methodist Publishing House, and several churches. He led the publishing effort for the book Buechner 101: An Introduction to Frederick Buechner in collaboration with Anne Lamott, and also the books in the How to Heal Our Divides series. All of this is a second career, coming after business and technology leadership in high-tech. Brian has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was designated a Palmer Scholar, their highest academic award. Learn more about Brian here.
Previous and Current Projects
Frederick Buechner Center
Brian served as Founding Director of the Frederick Buechner Center from 2010 through 2018. There he led the launch of Mr. Buechner’s online presence and established several new programs and strategic partnerships.
Writing for Your Life
Brian founded Writing for Your Life in 2016 and sold it to Kate Rademacher in 2023.
Writing for Your Life (WFYL) is committed to offering a wide variety of useful resources and services to support spiritual writers. WFYL offers writing conferences, resources, services, and online videos featuring leading spiritual writers and publishing industry experts. Here is a list of past writers conferences that Brian produced or co-produced.
Publishing in Color
Brian founded Publishing in Color in 2018 and Joyce Dinkins became the new owner and director in 2023.
Publishing in Color (PIC) strives “to remain fruitful in overcoming the scarcity of resources by Black persons and other people of color through a network of diverse, professional individuals who help nurture writers, authors, speakers, illustrators, designers, and other communicators to publish Christian resources. PIC conferences refresh participants with encouragement and, through “hands-on” mentoring, help to break up barriers. Collaboration and the tools PIC shares help to bring publishing visions to fruition. PIC invites you to be part of this growth. Find out more at publishingincolor.com.
Many book deals, literary agent relationships, devotionals, book contributions, magazine essays, and more have resulted from Publishing in Color conferences.
Conferences for Spiritual Writers
As part of the above three businesses, Brian was privileged to produce or co-produce many conferences for spiritual writers. You can view the complete list, including speakers, here.
Compassionate Christianity
Brian founded Compassionate Christianity in 2019 and sold it to Kate Rademacher in 2023.
Compassionate Christianity provides inclusive, welcoming, and affirming ideas, nourishment, and resources, reflecting the compassion Jesus modeled for us.
How to Heal Our Divides
Brian founded How to Heal Our Divides in 2021.
How to Heal Our Divides is a project aimed at building awareness of organizations that are taking real action to address the serious, deep divides that have had strong negative impacts on our society – racial, political, religious, and other divides. The project is not an attempt to gloss over serious problems or “make happy” but instead to highlight tangible efforts that are solving problems – actually healing divides in effective and practical ways. Our two books are available on Bookshop, Amazon, and IndieBound.
Find Your Next Calling
Brian founded Find Your Next Calling in 2023.
Find Your Next Calling is a combination of “discernment” – determining what you’re called to do – and “how to launch your own new business”. Here you will find a community where you can get advice, resources, and training on discerning your next calling and turning it into a reality. None of us has a corner on good ideas – here is an opportunity for mutual support and learning.