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I hope so. That’s the time you will need to set aside to listen to Jamie Oliver’s presentation about the obesity epidemic spreading throughout the world. If you are a holistic practitioner concerned about helping people live healthier, happier, longer lives — you need to watch this:
Where did your last three clients come from? If you’re like most holistic practitioners (chiropractors, acupuncturists, hemeopaths, naturopaths, nutrition consultants, personal trainers) at least two of them came through referrals. They were referred to you by “active promoters” of your business, those clients for whom you got breakthrough results.
Wouldn’t you like to turn MORE of your clients into loyal and raving fans to get even more referrals?
I have a program to help you take your practice to the next level — Coaching with Confidence for the Holistic Practitioner — an eight-week, instructor-led online coaching training program to help you:
To learn more about this program and register for upcoming classes, please visit me here!
Thanks, and I look forward to helping you take your holistic practice to the next level of excellence!
Over the last several years of working with holistic practitioners to help them grow their businesses, I’ve found that many of them are struggling to:
- Generate a steady stream of client referrals
- Keep clients in compliance with their programs
- Generate “passive” income – through sales of supplements and information products
- Create structured program with a predictable phases and sequences
- Market themselves, creating authentic and motivating messages about their services
- Keep themselves motivated and focused
- Identify and reach a profitable target market
- Deal effectively with feelings of frustration and overwhelm
- Create priorities and following through on commitments
- Ask for money from their clients – most practitioners are avoiding the uncomfortable “hard sell”
Sound familiar?
Let me ask you this: did you start your career as a holistic practitioner with lots of enthusiasm, then lose some of that momentum when you realized you needed to run a “real” business – for which you had little or no training?
I know this sounds weird, but take that as a good sign – every time you take on a new program or project, or even embark on a new career path, everyone goes through the same experience: initial enthusiasm, discouragement, until they finally get to a place of confidence and mastery.
I am here to help you get out of discouragement and disillusionment. I want to get you to that place of self-confidence that comes when you start delivering results because you are doing all the right things in the right way.
To begin working with me, I urge you to contact me for a free 30 minute phone consultation. I will give you Five Action Steps that you can implement immediately to get your practice un-stuck.
What have you got to lose? (except the rut!)
Building a thriving and financially successful practice takes what every small business needs: patience, persistence, and – above all – focus.
In my experience coaching and consulting holistic practitioners, a lack of focus is the single biggest obstacle to building a thriving and successful practice. Many jump from client group to client group, never really defining their target market . Others put time and energy into building a website only to let it languish soon after. I’ve also worked with a few who wanted to do very complex, specialized programs but then felt pressured to offer more compact “general interest” programs (weight loss, stress reduction, etc.) to generate short-term revenues.
In other words, these practitioners are bouncing all over the place!
And continue to bounce they will until they focus on a few key areas of their businesses, especially when they are building (or rebuilding) their holistic practices.
In this article, I want to help you focus on the framework of your business, the strategic pillars that create the foundation of a thriving, financially successful practice. I will provide reflection questions to help you get started seeing the “big picture” of your business. I also have a free template on my site (see below) to help organize your thinking, and most important, to turn your insights into action.
Your business framework consists of three foundational strategic pillars. To make it easy to remember, I call these the Three R’s of Growing a Thriving and Financially Successful Holistic Practice:
The First R: Results
You have to deliver results for your clients. When clients get results, they build confidence in you and your process, but more important, in themselves. They will see first-hand how strong and resourceful they really are. And, self-confident clients are much more likely to develop the kind of self-awareness that leads to self-care.
So I encourage all my clients to focus on the 2-3 results they KNOW they can deliver to 90% of their clients. These results must be specific, measurable, time bound and realistic. Too many times, holistic practitioners promise nice-sounding but all-too vague results.
Reflection Questions:
What results are you promising your clients? Take a look at the results you are promising your clients. Are they specific, measurable, time bound and realistic?
The Second R: Reputation
Your reputation is built on how you deliver results to your clients. Some practitioners are known as being “all business” – they know how to get their clients into action and inspire them to keep going no matter what ; others are memorable because of the care and empathy they demonstrate; still others are great “health detectives” able to ferret out all kinds of information using their reason and intuition.
It’s tempting to want to be all of these things! But your reputation is built on your most memorable quality, that “thing you do” and the “style you have” that makes you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Reflection Questions:
So, what do you want your clients saying about you? What’s the reputation you most like to build in the minds of your target market? What are you doing today and tomorrow to create that buzz, that reputation, that personal brand? If you put the first two R’s together, you get the third:
The Third R: Referrals
When you deliver results for your clients, you build a reputation. Consistent results and a strong reputation brings you referrals. And let’s face it, the easiest, most satisfying, and most profitable way to build a holistic practice is through referrals. You want your clients to be your own personal sales force. Studies have shown that up to 80% of revenues are generated by active promoters of your business, those clients-turned-sales-people who recommend you to family and friends.
You can also get referrals from additional sources: colleagues and peers in related specializations, allied medical professionals, supplement manufacturers and distributors, coaches and consultants in other industries, teachers and administrators from holistic training programs.
Reflection Questions:
What are you doing right now to make sure your clients are actively promoting your business after they conclude their engagement with you? Are you referring business to other health professionals? How are you managing your professional network? How are you talking about your business – the results you are getting and the reputation you are building?
To summarize:
You will build a thriving, abundant holistic practice when you follow this simple formula:
Results + Reputation = Referrals
It’s about that simple! Of course executing on this “simple” equation takes a lot of focus, which is what I’m encouraging you to do over the next six months. In my experience it takes about six months of consistent focus on a goal to make it a lifetime habit. I hope that after that six months, this simple equation becomes a mantra, or the background music to your practice.
To help you put your insights into action, I have a free downloadable template you can use to organize your thinking. If you need help filling it out, or planning your strategy to take your practice to the next level in 2010, please contact me!
Most holistic practitioners building a business struggle with their focus. So many times I hear practitioners complaining that they don’t know where to put their time and energies. They chase different opportunities. They end up with clients who don’t help them grow financially and/or professionally. They look for quick-fix solutions through Internet marketing strategies.
If you are in that boat, don’t worry! All of us have been there before. It’s just part of the game that you are in the process of learning how to play. The successful practitioners I’ve worked with just don’t stay in that boat forever! They learn from their “mistakes” and keep going.
To help, I’ve prepared this planning template to help you focus on the Three R’s of practice building: Results, Reputation and Referrals. To get some context before you use this template, I encourage you to read this article first.
Three R Planning Template (Adobe Acrobat Format)
Just a note: Don’t try to finish this template in record time. In fact, take your time. Spend a couple of days thinking about your answers. I think you’ll find the extra time gives you new and deeper insights that can then be translated into purposeful action.
Was it your fourth grade teacher? A high school tennis coach? A college professor? Your boss in your last job?
Whoever it was, think about them for just a moment. Take yourself back to some of the more memorable interactions you had with them.
When I think of the best teachers, coaches, bosses I’ve had, I remember several things:
First, they knew their stuff, whatever it was. They were experts in their field, and had a way of explaining things that were simple, direct and actionable.
Second, they got “me” — they understood my opportunities and challenges, those things that made me unique and different.
Third, they held me to a higher standard — my own. They saw in me great potential to do good work and give something of meaning back to my community. They never compared me to other employees or students or players — they asked me (in their own way) to live up to my own potential.
Your clients come to you looking for help, whether they are addressing a health issue of unknown origins, or a very specific health condition that’s been identified but won’t go away. Either way, they are — whether they will admit it or not — scared that this issue or condition will become permanent, a part of their life, part of their identity forever.
But when people find themselves in the presence of ‘greatness — the kind of greatness we have ALL experienced in the best bosses and teachers and coaches we’ve ever had — something miraculous happens. Because we believe in them (because they believe in us), we begin to believe in ourselves. And when we believe in ourselves, our healing not only begins, it accelerates.
Don’t you want to be the best health/healer/holistic practitioner your current and future clients ever had. That when I ask them “who’s the best boss/coach/teacher they ever had?” your name comes to mind?
By knowing specifically what that person did, you can model their approach, and begin to (or make more consistent) the belief they brought into your life and remains today. Honor their legacy by making it a part of your practice.
I invite you to start by paying a homage to the person you thought of when I asked the question at the beginning of the post: “Who’s the best boss or teacher or coach you ever had?” — and — share with us what they did (specifically) to make them the best.
By sharing your story about them, you not only honor their gift to you, you can start bring their methods into your practice AND help other practitioners learn what it takes to be the “best.”
