Véronique is ATSuccess's resident muddle-headed wombat. I am chief muddle-headed wombat - but as a muddle head, I'm not quite sure if that's right. Hmmm.

You probably have no idea what I am talking about do you?

My beloved Aunt Mono died when she was 96.

The last time I visited her in Grafton, she asked me in a quiet voice:

"Jerry, what is a computer?"

I started out confident, but as I watched her listen, her eyes started to get glassy and I knew I'd lost her. She had no reference for my explanations. Part of the problem was that, well – it was too many things: a typewriter, a TV, a filing cabinet, a telephone..

The more I tried to explain, the more incomprehensible it became.

While in London this August, I was reminded of a ubiquitous retailers obsession the Brits have – 3 for 1 campaigns. Buy two books, get a third for free. Same with shirts, potato chips, hotel rooms, soft drinks – it's endless. What is this?

It's something that works.

I noticed it working in my Self at the airport as I was leaving for Japan. I was looking for a book to read on the 13 hour trip back home – I still prefer a book to a kindle – and I found several candidates. So I had to nail it down to one.

Or did I?

Are you a celebrity?

Your dog thinks so; your cat isn’t so sure.

Your children – if they are pre-adolescent – definitely think you are.

Grace, at aged 10, shared with me the bitter disillusionment she went through “when I was young” the time I admitted I did not know the answer…

“But I thought you knew everything!” She was five at the time.

Once you are a celebrity, people confer upon you abilities you have not acquired. Because you are so successful at one thing you do, people believe you must know a lot about other things too.

Have you heard of a sales funnel?

I hadn’t until a few years ago, and I can’t believe I was ever in business without understanding this concept. Unbelievable. Yet I know there are hundreds, thousands - millions of people in fact - who are going about trying to build a small business without having any concept that resembles what a sales funnel is.

Is it true that 80%+ fail at building a small business? Yes, and it is not a surprise. Ignorance is the reason.

Many in the Alexander Technique community think of marketing as disingenuous hype, and feel an aversion to it. They think marketing has a false feeling, a lack of genuine concern and authenticity. I know because I have been that way my Self. I eventually discovered that marketing works best when harnessed with my organically or naturally driven desires. As you study Alexander's discoveries, you come to know this easily: consider these parallels between the process of breathing and the process or marketing…