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A supportive, short-term community of practice for workshop hosts.
Test out your unique and counter-cultural ideas without experimenting on paying clients.
Currently only a $100 CAD investment for the group meeting the week of April 26th – May 2nd. (First one!)
Stepping outside of your comfort zone can be intimidating. Even when you know it’s something that’s worth the effort.
It can be unsteadying to not know how a new thing you wanna try is gonna land.
So that exciting idea gets postponed…
again, and again.
You might not even let yourself design the things you *really* want to be doing…
Or if you do spend time dreaming it up, you’re afraid to put your full energy behind marketing it because there’s a (big) part of you that doesn’t actually want anyone to come because you’re not sure if you can pull it off.
Perhaps because this idea is close to your heart and you don’t want to be disappointed?
(Ask me how I know.)
Maybe it’s a somatic exercise that people might think is ‘weird’.
Maybe there’s an amazing game that fits your theme, but you’re worried people won’t take you seriously, or will refuse to play.
Or you’ve got an anti-capitalist framework you want to share, but you’re afraid is too ‘woke’ for your people.
You’re not sure if you can pull it off… because you’ve never done it. Yet.
Express permission to bring something messy and unfinished.
Something unique… and maybe boundary pushing?
No more deferring the vision that lights you up.
You’ll have people to discuss details with. Share resources. Test, play, give out ideas and input.
A soft place to land.
In less than a week, you’ll know if (A) your idea has legs and just needs a few tweaks, (B) is ready-to-go as-is, or (C) if you want to release that idea and do something else.
Either way… it’s good data to support your future decisions.
Click below and claim one of the six spots for $100.
(And put the dates in your calendar!)
Tell me a little bit about your work and your vision of the future.
I’ll send you a (short!) guide to the Society & Culture element of worldbuilding to explore right away.
Our group Voxer chat will open the Sunday before our first live session.
(I’ll introduce y’all.)
Say hi to yo’ new comrades.
Everything you need to get a new idea fleshed out and tested in a week:
(April 26th – May 2nd)
This gives you time to consider the world you want to build and how you can nudge dominant culture toward a more nourishing and vibrant future. What do you want your workshop to be an antidote to? Urgency culture? Rugged individualism? Power hoarding?
You’ll come into our live sessions with a clearer point of focus to build on, and common context and language with the rest of the group. This lets us get into a deeper layer of conversation right away! Plus you can use this resource again and again for your future workshops.
(I want *my* work to be an antidote to: perfectionism, stuffiness, and hierarchies of power…. and have designed Playtesting in service of that!)
We’ll share thoughts that came up as we went through the worldbuilding resource, discuss the things we’ve wanted to do (but haven’t yet) and collectively brainstorm new ways to put our values into action as workshop facilitators.
This is where we help each other shape the activities we’ll test out on Thursday.
Depending on where the conversation goes, I’ve got a few resources I can either contribute in the moment, or share afterward. (A framework for game constraints, somatic regulation exercises, consent-based language for introducing something really novel, etc.)
You all have a wealth of experience, so I’m hoping y’all will support each other and build our resource bank too – this is a group project! 
Dedicated time to *practice* something different that feels aligned and meaningful.
An opportunity to try out a new-to-you activity with people who understand that this is a first draft.
Because there only two days between session 1 and session 2, you’ve got time to do a small amount of preparation if you need to, but not enough time to overthink it and psych yourself out. (You’ve only got two day turnaround. Low stakes. Noone’s expecting any polish, just for an attempt to be made!)
The (hopefully!) secret genius in this timing is that it should remove a lot of the pressure and stress folks have a tendency to put on themselves, and break the inertia by trying *something* new.
The key is that this is with a relatively small, supportive, values-aligned ‘affinity group’ that’s all doing the same thing together.
We’ll have roughly 15 minutes each – I’m thinking 10 minutes of activity, 5 minutes of feedback/brainstorming from the group. Then a bit of time at the end to debrief the overall experience together.
You’ll get proof your idea can work AND/OR ideas to make it better.
Instead of only *fantasizing* about getting ‘out-of-the-box’ or doing more meaningful and interesting work, you can bring it into reality. And you’ll see how real, live humans respond to it.
Maybe the exercise felt rushed and needs to be a few minutes longer.
Maybe our energy starts to dip and you need to swap the order you do things in.
Maybe we got confused because your explanation skipped a key piece of context.
Maybe we loved everything and want even more.
Whatever constructive thing we notice, we’ll let you know!
Good feedback can be hard to find! This part feels so valuable to me.
Get some data. Give yourself something to build on. Grow your confidence about this new way of being in the world.
A dedicated channel for relationship building and resource sharing. It’s pretty much guaranteed we’ll have more to say than time will allow, and ideas and challenges that’ll come to us outside those small windows of time.
This lets our live sessions stay focused, too. I’ve attended many other live sessions that got derailed by participants exchanging contact info and organizing meetups. Let’s make a separate space specifically for doing those lovely and worthwhile things.
My intention is for this to be a short container – you can choose which relationships you want to develop further, if any. If things go well and there’s a desire, I’ll do more temporary communities of practice like this in the future!
In my late twenties and early thirties, I was fiiinally able to overcome a debilitating fear of public speaking.
In high school, I skipped all my presentations and took a zero.
In university, I ended up in the ER on a heart monitor.
One time while teaching in Japan, I tried to give a speech (in Japanese!) with ten minutes notice. I had what’s called a psychogenic blackout.
I could not (and had not!) “gotten over” my mental blocks on my own. My body shut down.
It wasn’t until I joined a public speaking group and was able to take baby steps that I dissolved this lifelong challenge.
Time with an encouraging and supportive group of people who were going through (or had gone through) the same thing was a total game-changer.
After a few weeks, I felt comfortable giving a 1-minute report in their meetings.
Several months in, I gave my first short speech to the group.
A couple years later, I could stand on a stage, talking to hundreds of strangers.
(I’ll be in my first play later this month!)
Each rep helped me grow my confidence.
I believe room for trial-and-error is a crucial part of any development process.
I believe we learn best when we’re having fun and feel a sense of agency.
I believe humans are equal, and we need each other.
And I built Playtesting around these beliefs.
Nothing would make me happier than to create a community of counter-cultural facilitators.
I think having a communal space to practice and hone our skills could be… epic.
You’ve got info about what didn’t work (without trying it on your students)
examples of others in action to inspire you, a trove of resources, and maybe some new biz friends?
Totally up to you!
I will say, this is designed with a ‘make a rough first draft’ mindset. Come with whatever you have, and we’ll figure it out a bit more together.
The resource I’ll send in advance is about 5 pages. I’d recommend spending maybe 20-30 minutes with it actively when you get it, then let the ideas percolate until we get together.
Live session 1 is 90 minutes.
Live session 2 is 2 hours.
How much time you spend in between is your call.
The group chat will be available all week for resource sharing, emotional support, asking questions, processing insights, etc.
You don’t have to do any “work” between our live sessions if you don’t want to. But 15-30 minutes of work should get you pretty far if you do want to prep a little bit.
I personally wouldn’t spend too much time preparing. You’ll probably want to change things after you get feedback anyway!
So, maybe 5 hours total?
Some people will think it’s worth 20x the price. Some people might say it should be free. Some currencies are strong against Canadian dollars, others are weaker.
Money is such a subjective thing.
(FYI – at the time I wrote this, $100 CAD was worth $72 USD, £54 GBP, ¥11,500 JPY)
You’re getting a temporary community of practice, the opportunity to test out a new idea in a supportive, low-stakes environment. That alone is pretty special to me.
If that by itself isn’t worth the price, the reusable worldbuilding concept (for Society & Culture), chance to give and get feedback, and meeting a group of like-minded people might sweeten the deal.
But only you can decide, and if you’re not super jazzed, then maybe now isn’t the right time. (And that’s okay).
Full disclosure: This is currently a low ‘first-iteration’ price to acknowledge the risk inherent in trying something brand new. If I do this again, it may be more in future rounds.
Both calls start at 2pm Eastern.
Tuesday April 28th @ 2pm – 3:30pm EST (Community Roundtable)
Thursday April 30th @ 2pm – 4pm EST (Test Runs)
There were only 6 spots available to start.
If you can purchase a seat, there’s still room for you to join!
If there’s not, you should be redirected to a waitlist.
My CRM (Fern) manages all that backend stuff. If knowing exactly how many people are already registered is important to you, send me a message using the chat widget and I can look it up.
Do you see a heart-shaped pink speech bubble at the bottom of the screen? If you click on that, you can send me a text!
I think it’s really important that people feel good about the decisions they make.
I may *anonymously* add the Q&A here if it’s something that would benefit others to know.
Ask away! 🙂
Currently, I’m loving Bomb Busters and playing it almost weekly. It’s a cooperative game with lots of logical deduction, toooons of variety, and the art has cute lil animals.
Everyone I’ve introduced it to has loved it.
Highly recommend!
You’ve been wanting to mix your facilitation up for a while. Maybe years.
If this feels like the right next step for you, Playtesting is here to support you.
$100 CAD
Workshops that introduce people to your vision for the world
