Private Practice Success Newsletter, January 2012

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When the going gets tough, the tough get growing. Hard times are often the impetus for personal and professional growth.

After a year of newsletters in 2011 that focused on slowing growth to boost your existing profitability, (see last year’s newsletters here) for 2012, as the economy begins to show signs of improvement, I am exploring avenues of private practice growth.

But first, some preparation.

It’s been a hard year for many small business owners. I hear, each month, about therapists, coaches, consultants, and advisors that are feeling tired. To begin to grow, when you are already tired, requires business resilience.

Business Resilience

Business resilience means that you, as the business owner, can bounce back from adversity. Resilience is that wonderful combination of hopefulness and pragmatism. As the Japanese proverb says: Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Resilience means that in the face of crisis, you respond, not just react. You fail fast and correct fast. “Eyes on the prize,” one of my clients repeats to herself during the day, to remind herself to stay focused on her goals despite the multiple stressors she faces in her business.

A resilient mindset is elegantly described in this 9-word poem by Masahide, a Japanese poet living in two centuries ago (found in Lucien Styrk’s translation of Zen poetry, 1995.)

Barn’s burnt down –
now
I can see the moon.

Or perhaps you prefer the chorus of Kanye West’s popular song, Stronger, that is on my workout playlist:

N-now th-that that don’t kill me
Can only make me stronger
I know I got to be right now
Cause I can’t get much wronger

Just as with learned optimism, a resilient mindset can be taught. I have watched hundreds of small business owners go from feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or fearful from a myriad of business and personal challenges to developing resilience and gumption.

Patterns of Thinking

Start by noticing your patterns of thinking, when you think about your business. Are you a worrier— dwelling on worst-case scenarios, feeling down about your lack of success, rejecting possible ideas because you assume they won’t work?

Are you a planner—making mental lists of what to do next, staying focused and motivated? Are you overly optimistic—seeing many opportunities, not able to prioritize, needing direction?

Are you a procrastinator—coming up with good ideas but never feeling ready to start?

Negative beliefs and critical self-talk cause you to collapse. Constructive, optimistic yet pragmatic thinking help you to stay in the game, taking the next steps.

Successful Entrepreneurs

Successful entrepreneurs stay resilient by adopting the following six qualities into their thinking:

1.    Given a set of challenges, they see opportunities:  Successful small business owners face continual challenges and problems. To stay resilient and upbeat, you need to see the opportunities inside each challenge, the silver lining. If staff leaves, a client terminates, a contract is not awarded, a therapist with your same skills moves in down the hall from your office – do you retreat or advance? What opportunities do you see? When staff leaves, you can hire better staff or automate with upgraded systems. If a client terminates it is a reminder that you need to keep marketing, a given for every small business owner. Lost or un-renewed contracts push you to broaden and diversify. As a change agent, you probably use this skill of seeing opportunities within challenges for your clients to help them stay hopeful. Adopt this same mindset for yourself as a business owner.

2.    Given a problem, they are both optimistic and pragmatic: Successful entrepreneurs are hopeful, but realistic. Can you walk with your head in the clouds seeing what’s possible, while keeping your feet on the ground noting what’s probable? You need to balance expectations with pragmatism. Which side of the seesaw needs more weight? Do you need more practicality in your business thinking or more optimism? The best  entrepreneurial equilibrium helps you see both sides of every challenge or opportunity – the risk and the reward – at the same time.

3.    They expect a lot from themselves and others. They want a lot for themselves and others: Expecting a lot from others—those who work with you, be they staff or clients—means having clearer boundaries around your requests with clients or staff. Express your needs and wants more cleanly and directly. Expect those around you to come from the best in themselves, and hold yourself to this expectation as well. Wanting for others means that you can hold a big vision and goals for those around you. When one of my clients sets a goal, I will support the achievement of the goal by staying interested, by brainstorming, and by celebrating when it is met, but I don’t demean the client by reminding or nagging about the goal. I may hold a strong vision of success for my clients, even when they can’t see how things will ever work out. I am amazed at how just holding this vision, week after week, month after month, even in the face of set-backs and challenges, can result in my clients being brave and persistent, taking difficult steps, and accomplishing great things for themselves. “I see that it’s possible for you to fill your practice with the types of clients you want to work with and charge a fair fee, if you are willing to take your practice seriously.” or “I see that it’s possible for you to make six figures and still have a balanced life. I’d be happy to support you to see you reach that goal.”

4.    Persistence is their middle name: This skill is necessary in business: successful entrepreneurs have the ability to stay with a goal for a long time. Persistence is critical because business results take time to achieve. I can be relentless when I have a goal in mind and feel (and act) like a dog with a bone. I simply can’t let go of a project, idea, action, desire. I try to temper this with patience and compassion for myself and others, but I still hold on. I will adjust my behavior (if the goal doesn’t work) and just try again. And again. I accept my failure as feedback and tweak my approach with curiosity each time until I get it right.

5.    They enjoy making a profit: The definition of a business is an entity that makes a profit. This quality means that you enjoy business for business’ sake. As you become more mature in your approach to money and reconcile profit and service, making money can feel congruent with providing good service.

6.    They operate from a state of abundance: Abundance means that there is enough—enough clients, opportunities, time, energy, money, ideas, etc. for you to have what you need in your business. When you believe there is enough out there, you don’t mind being persistent in your actions to get your share. When you believe there is enough, you can think strategically – the question isn’t if but when and how. This belief makes business more fun. It’s the difference between standing on the beach watching others swim, or getting your feet wet and jumping the waves. You only feel the abundance when you find the courage and will to get into the swim of things.

Copyright by Lynn Grodzki, 2012, reprint with permission only.

Private Practice Success Newsletter,  October 13, 2011

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During this unstable economy, the market for helping services is shifting. The need for some services ends, others emerge.

Alexander Graham Bell said, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Open Doors

This month, let me help you open some doors by looking at two important strategies:

• How to spot opportunities that you may have overlooked that other helping and healing

• How to filter (assess) the opportunities you see, so that you only move forward on those that are right for you

Spotting Opportunities

As a market changes, opportunities arise. Do you know the services that sell best in today’s difficult economy?

In my book, Crisis-Proof Your Practice: How to Survive and Thrive in an Uncertain Economy, I show readers how to keep an eye out for existing opportunities. I list the services that sell well in a recession. Other resources, such as Psychotherapy Finances also look at emerging niche opportunities each month.

Here are just a few to think about right now:

1) Medical and health issues: Many health problems resolve better with psychotherapy. (Develop good relationships with doctors for this niche. See my article on getting referrals from doctors here.)

2) Financial therapy: Develop connections with corporate human resource departments to help those depressed by financial stressors. (See this website: www.financialtherapyassociation.org)

3) Anti-bullying: Help for children who are victims of bullying, especially cyber-bullying. (Offer a program for both parents and children, both of whom get traumatized by this situation.)

4) Coaching for college students: (Cut backs are reducing college-sponsored help for new students with time-management and career counseling.)

5) Weight loss support: (Works best as a self-pay program and can be combined or affiliated with other exercise or nutritional programs)

6) Crime-busting counseling: Shoplifting, compulsive stealing, juvenile offenders need therapy and anger management (Works well with short-term, evidence-based approaches.)

Filtering & Assessing

I have many more opportunities I spot that can help therapists and coaches make money. But how to choose?

It’s normal to see all that is possible and feel overwhelmed. If you think: “There is so much I would like to do. It all has potential. How do I evaluate all of this?”

Entrepreneurial types are known for having too many irons in the fire, saying yes more than they say no, needing to sort and prioritize on a regular basis.

Even if you are not yet highly entrepreneurial, you still need a way to evaluate opportunities you spot. To select the best opportunities for yourself, develop a filter. A filter is a screen of questions you look through, similar to a photographer’s lens to bring certain objects into sharp focus and blur the rest.

How it Works

I use a series of filtering questions to help guide my choices, as I consider a sea of opportunities. I have 3 that work for me: unless I can answer yes to all questions, I do not move forward on any new project or service.  What are your questions?

Ready? Here are a list of filtering questions to think about and apply.

Exercise: Filtering Opportunities

(from Crisis-Proof Your Practice by Lynn Grodzki, WW Norton 2009)

Select up to 3 of the following set of questions to create a filter for evaluating new opportunities:

1.    Is it profitable? If so, what is the timeline for profitability?
2.    Do the immediate rewards outweigh the risks?
3.    Will this take me closer or further from my business vision or plan?
4.    Will this significantly improve my skills in a way that builds my business?
5.    Will this be fun, an adventure, uplifting, good for my soul?
6.    Will this help me create more community in my life or isolate me?
7.    What other paths could this lead to?
8.    What does my head say about this? What is my gut feeling?
9.    What will I lose if I say no? What will this cost me if I say yes?
10.  What must I let go of or delegate in order to take this on?

Next time you are excited about a new service, project, affiliation, etc, take a moment and assess, using your 3 questions. Then decide what will take you in the direction you want to go.

More next time!

Email Newsletter, September 2011

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I have been writing this monthly email newsletter for almost fifteen years. In the spirit of the remembrance this month, I decided to look through my files for what I wrote about ten years ago, in 2001.

I found a draft of that old newsletter whose topic was Disruption and Change, sent out the first of September 2001.  Of course I didn’t know what the country would face ten days later; but the topic is still a valid one, as the degree of complication in our world gets ever more intense.

As master therapist Steve Gilligan says, “One thing you can count on is that life keeps coming at you. The next event is already in the mail.”

The events that disrupt our lives and our work are inevitable, but the question remains the same: What is our best response to disruptive change?

Here are 3 strategies I like:

1)    Lean Forward

I learned one important way to respond to change from my few, pathetic attempts at skiing. The hardest aspect of skiing for me is posture: You need to lean forward into your skis. That means slanting your body over your skis, so you are looking down the hill.

I have had several instructors explain this leaning forward dynamic. Leaning forward helps you maneuver your skis. Leaning forward creates momentum, and actually gives you control by putting more weight on the front of the ski. Leaning forward makes the skis easier to turn and more responsive at high speeds and allows the wind to flow over your body at high speeds.

I get it, I just don’t like it. To balance my innate fear of heights and speed, I like to lean back, waaaay back.

Last time I went skiing, I was perched on a steep hill and I was nervous. I had a brilliant plan. If I traversed the hill, only going side to side, it would still count as skiing and I would feel safe. I began to ski this way. But a friend, a good skier, was watching me. She stopped a bit above me on the hill and watched me for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, finally 20 minutes. (I was barely advancing but getting pretty good at going back and forth, back and forth.) Finally she swished up next to me on her skis and said, kindly but firmly, Lynn, the whole point of skiing is to get down the hill.    

When I meet with therapists, coaches, consultants, in small business today, many of whom are frightened about changes that are affecting their practices, they look just like me on skis. Tense, hesitant, of two minds about what steps to take with lots of back and forth reasoning. They are working against the natural momentum of the change.

Like a ski instructor, I say: “Nothing is wrong, this is how it feels in today’s economy. This is how uncertain markets react, up and down – we are just in a downturn. It’s safe to try some new strategies. Try this, lean forward, let your practice shift and it will gain energy as you move forward.”

I tell them that I know leaning forward into the direction of change may feel unfamiliar and downright scary. But in business (and in skiing) it is the only way to advance. And it’s easier when someone reminds you, from time to time, which way you are supposed to be heading.

2)    Accept What Is True

Responding to change starts with our ability to notice that something is different. We often need a wake-up call to take action, also known as the “attention to intention.”

My good friend called me with a common concern. “I am gaining weight,” she moaned. “I work out the same as before, I eat the same as before, but this summer I am up 5 lbs.” We commiserated about aging, slowing metabolism, the unfairness of it all. But she has a clear choice: adapt to her new, older body and slower metabolism, or accept a little extra weight.

We want things to work the way they used to, and they don’t. It’s similar in a small business. We get attached to an old business model that we liked, one that used to work fine, but now, in a changing market, that old model is no longer resilient.

As a business coach, I try to help my clients see what is true for today and likely for the future. Like my friend tracking her weight, I ask them to start by tracking their own practices for data: What is not working well? What is OK? Where do new clients come from now? How long do they stay? Who is in your professional community—who are you talking with each week, each month? Do they refer? If not, why not? How satisfied are clients with your services? How do you know?

We look at additional strategies to attract clients, better ways to set fees or manage schedules, and trends that can bring new opportunities. When we can see the situation and accept it without judgment or blame, it’s so much easier to be strategic about the future.

3)    Respect the Little Things

I don’t listen to a lot of rap music, but one song I like is by T.I. The chorus (cleaned up of profanity) goes: Big things poppin’, little things stoppin’. The lyrics mean that even though the opportunity for growth is right in front of us, small points of resistance can prevent us from moving forward.

As I explored in my newest book, Crisis-Proof Your Practice, when markets change, business opportunities emerge: new clients, ideas, services, methods, structure — big things poppin! If you can’t see these or take advantage of them, you will most likely be dealing with something small but potent that needs to be addressed fast — little things stoppin.

Here is an example from the world of private practice:

After tracking her practice data, Susan, a Canadian psychotherapist, found that she was getting a fair number of calls from new clients who found her on the Internet. But few of these calls converted to actual clients. Her goal was to create a better website that would reflect her services and in doing so, attract the right kind of clients who would follow up and actually book sessions.

She wrote her new website text, found a website designer and with his help, developed a good design. She was ready to launch the site, but then things ground to a halt.

By the time she called me for help, she had been stuck in this place of inaction for six months. We talked at some length to explore any and all concerns that the launch might be eliciting. She got many interesting insights from our coaching calls, and made plans to launch, but ultimately, did nothing. It confused her (and me.) She stayed stuck, with no change in her behavior. I keep dropping the ball, she would say, sadly.

Shift Happens

One day she came to her coaching call quite excited. “I figured it out, Lynn,” she said. “It’s funny, because it was a small thing, something I overlooked, but it acted as a very powerful brake.

“You know how at the top of the site, under my name, I put my professional degree and then the words “Behavioral Psychologist?

I said I remembered. “Well, I realized that I don’t see myself that way anymore. I don’t like the word Behavioral. It’s wrong and not reflective of the way I work now. It’s been right for me for my previous career, but sends the wrong message to clients. I took it away and just left the word Psychologist and all the sudden, I couldn’t wait to launch. It’s up, take a look!”

We looked at her wonderful, new site and laughed together about the unconscious communication between her  behavior (dropping the ball) and the small necessary step to drop the word Behavioral.

Sometimes we have to get everything aligned, big and small, conscious and un, in order to move forward. So although we don’t want to sweat the small things, those things can be powerful and matter in the end.

Need some help for yourself and your practice? Let’s see if a first step might be individual coaching. To get started click here.  

Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, August 2011 Edition

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Most economists agree that we are living in risky economic times.  On both a macro and micro level, the financial future is uncertain and worrisome.

What can a small business owner do to prepare for a possible extended downturn?

This month, I will walk you through a clear plan to minimize business risk, so you know how to protect your practice.

Practice-Building in Hard Times

Building a small business is hard and risky, even in the best of times. A large percentage of small businesses fail, and the creation of a business built on “intangibles” – services that are hard for the public to define, explain, or measure – adds to the difficulty.

Because you have so much of yourself, your skills, and your finances tied up in your practice, it is important to evaluate risk. When the market is tough, it’s essential that you evaluate any business vulnerabilities.

Understanding Risk

By risk, I mean both what you do and what you don’t do that can threaten the survival of your private practice.

But risk avoidance is a two-edged sword. You may think that curtailing all investment into your practice right now is the best way to avoid the risk of economic failure.

But not investing in your private practice or giving it enough time, money, energy, opportunities, or brainpower is a way to threaten its survival.

In my newest book about practice building in hard times, Crisis-Proof Your Practice: How to Survive and Thrive in an Uncertain Economy, I explain several ways to manage your business risks. Here are three strategies you need to think about and take action on now.

Risk Reduction

Risk reduction is a way to evaluate the dangers to your practice and then minimize the severity of the loss or potential loss. For example, one basic method of risk reduction in your home is having smoke detectors to warn you of a potential fire.

Risk reduction (think “smoke detector”) for your business includes:

• A written business, marketing and financial plan, backed by your own data, that will help you evaluate and track the state of your practice at any given time.

• A cash reserve to cushion the operating expenses of your practice. (Each practice needs a minimum 6 months reserve to help you get through especially tough months and still pay your basic operating expenses.)

• Regular self care for the business owner so that you as the primary service delivery person don’t get sick, exhausted and unable to work, market and fulfill responsibilities to clients.

• Completing your records and keeping files updated.

• Developing a brain trust of advisers for professional support to help you strategize your next steps, especially when you are tense or anxious.

I know, for many readers, this list may feel overwhelming. If so, think about it this way: This kind of business planning is difficult for many, especially if you were not trained in business. Not surprisingly, a lot of the individual business coaching I do right now focuses on protection. Small steps can have huge results. I see, repeatedly, that anxious professionals can become much calmer business owners by taking the right actions.     

And there is more to consider on this topic.  Here are 2 more strategies:

Risk Retention

Risk retention means having a way to accept and survive a business loss if and when it occurs.

Let’s say that you have a private practice in a cold climate, and an unusual series of snow and ice storms put you out of business for a month. This risk of weather is one that can’t be avoided, reduced or transferred and is “retained” by you, by default.

Risk retention (think “bad weather”) requires that you:

•   Plan for worst case scenarios and then try to average out losses over time (the bad winter month gets incorporated into the overall profit and loss statement for several months or a full year, to try and amortize the loss.

•  Anticipate slowdowns and losses as a normal part of the ups and downs of doing business and keep a reserve of clients (waiting list), cash (savings) or opportunities (networking or marketing possibilities) so that you have more than enough to keep you busy in slow times.

•  Focus on staying flexible in how you deliver service; if clients can’t come into your office when their child is ill or weather is bad, can you do the session by email, by phone or send them an audio tape or written report that you have created specifically for them during the session time to substitute?

Risk Transfer

Risk transfer means that you transfer a loss to another party, by contractually having agreed to the risk. In this way, the risk doesn’t fall entirely on your small practice, but is either shared or taken on by someone else.

Risk transfer (think “sharing”) includes:

•  Enforcing cancellation policies that you and your client have agreed to. If the current policy is too harsh, set one that you can live with and enforce without discomfort.

•  Negotiate with landlords or other vendors for a reduction in price or payment terms when circumstances cause a loss of income. Often a landlord, credit card company, training company, or other vendor is willing to work out some temporary terms of payment rather than lose your business altogether or see you go bankrupt.

•  Maintain insurance including malpractice insurance, rental insurance, and life insurance on partners or associates, if their income is critical to the operating income of a practice.

OK, do you need help  securing your practice against risk?

Let’s work together on this. Schedule an intro session today to see how business coaching can help you cope with a difficult economy by clicking here.

Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, June 2011 Edition

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Most therapists, coaches and consultants aspire to a full-fee practice, but it’s getting harder to achieve. In this newsletter, you will understand both the challenges and a key strategy to attracting your ideal clients.

In several earlier articles, I have explained that there are 3 paths to building a viable private practice today.  In several earlier articles, I have outlined the three paths to private practice today. (For those new to this discussion, read how to create a consumer-driven practice “When The Client Is In Charge” or an insurance-driven practice “Referrals From Doctors” by clicking on the links.)

This month, we look at the third, vibrant business model that relies on full fee clients.

The Belief-driven Practice

The belief-driven practice is my term for fully independent practice that relies on the strength, theory-base and personal passion of the therapist, coach, or consultant to attract a flow of ideal clients. This boutique model of practice allows the owner to charge a full fee, because these ideal clients are looking for quality and willing to pay for expertise and good results.

This model is traditional. But I hear from therapists and others in private practice that, in the face of a difficult economic market, increasing competition, and changing trends, this business model is becoming ever harder to achieve.

Getting Found

Today’s market for mental health therapists, coaches, and consultants often resembles a Middle-Eastern bazaar.

For example, if you are a psychotherapist, you can see that a plethora of professionals (psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, and psychiatrists) promote and use a myriad of approaches (over 180 schools or methods of therapy at last count.)

It’s easy to get lost in the mix. In this crowded marketplace, how do you get found?

To attract ideal clients, you need to stand out from the crowd.  Clients who pay full fee do so because they want YOU, not just any counselor.  An ideal client is not price-conscious (i.e. Who is cheapest?) or convenience-focused (i.e. Who is open on weekends?)

Ideal clients want quality and, because they want you, they are willing to adapt to your fees and hours.

Ideal clients come via enthusiastic referrals from others, or because they resonate with your message or your methods.

Communicating with Passion

Ultimately, the fuel for this attraction is you and your ability to communicate your belief in your work. You must get comfortable writing and speaking directly and persuasively about your skills. Many therapists and healing professionals I meet feel a lot of passion for the work they do, but don’t know how to express it well. They get stumped when talking or writing and mute their message.

They become forgettable.

Communicating your passion is a skill, akin to developing a skill of influence or persuasion. As helping and healing professionals, our goal is not promotion or manipulation, but a way to express sincere caring, proficiency and integrity. These skills help attract new clients and retain existing ones long enough for them to complete their work with you.

Of all the skills I teach as a business coach, this strategy — enhancing your ability to express your passion and belief in your work — is probably the one that has the most long-lasting results in helping others build a full fee practice.

Essential Next Steps

The more you believe in your own value and effectiveness, the more others will. Here is why that is true, according to a much tested research study first noted in 1936, that stands up to repeated results today.

The better you capture and express your belief and passion for your work, the more your clients appreciate what they have paid (well) to receive, and the more likely the therapy will succeed. I think this strategy holds true, regardless of professional orientation (coach, consultant, counselor, healing professional.)

So, here is the big question: Do you know how to communicate this way?

Let me show you how. Read the whole article to see an example that explains how I coach therapists, coaches, and other consultants to enhance their communication of passion, value and belief in their work.

Research

Let me explain the importance of passion by explaining a study known in the profession as the “Dodo Bird Effect.” This research, which has been upheld many times, was originally conducted by psychologist Saul Rosenzweig (American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 1936) to assess which therapeutic orientation or method was most effective or produced the best results. He found that the specific therapeutic orientation doesn’t matter because all orientations work. Hence the Dodo Bird reference from Alice in Wonderland. After a race, the Dodo bird judging the race declared that all had won and all must have prizes.

Relying on Belief

As therapist Gary Greenberg explains, “The Dodo Bird Effect has been borne out by numerous studies since, with one elaboration. The single factor that makes a difference in outcome is faith; the patient must believe in the therapist and the therapist must believe in his orientation. For therapy to work, both parties must have faith, sometimes against all reason, that their expedition will succeed.” (“The War on Unhappiness,” by Gary Greenberg, Harper’s Magazine, 9/2010.)

This reliance on belief is essential to the attraction and retention of clients. The more passion expressed by the therapist (and the client) for the work being done, the more likely the therapy will succeed.

How do you communicate your faith or belief in your services, methods, and results?

Let me give you a real-life case example that explains how I coach therapists, coaches, and other consultants to enhance their communication of passion and belief.

Identifying Your Influence

Anna, a therapist and life coach, was worried about the state of her practice. She hired me to help her grow her practice, but she had some preconditions. She told me that she had been in private practice for over a decade and during that time seen the market for her services go up and down.

She complained of feeling exhausted and said she wasn’t sure whether she could summon up the enthusiasm she needed to keep her practice going. “Clients call, but they want a therapist who takes insurance. I don’t. Too few people understand life coaching and those services can be hard to sell. I am good at what I do, but it’s hard to express it to others. I need more full-fee clients and more referrals, but I feel tired and a bit embarrassed to have to toot my own horn.”

A business in a recession is like a hungry, needy toddler. You can’t put a smile on its face if you, as the parent, show up exhausted, passive, or without personal resources.

Our coaching sessions took place by phone.  I made suggestions about ways that Anna could recharge herself personally and professionally. She took long walks each day, and thought about herself, hers goals, and hers life.

At our next coaching call, I asked her to talk about hers strengths and successes at work. I had lots of questions for her:  Who are you when you are doing your best work. What are some of the successes you have had with clients? Who have you helped and how? What makes you different from other therapists and life coaches? If I had a client to refer, why would I be smart to send them to you?

Being Persuasive

Anna felt shy and awkward to be so explicit and direct. But as I took the time to listen, validate, and acknowledge her work, she noticed an important internal shift. “I am sitting up straighter in my chair, Lynn. There is a smile on my face. I am really feeling good about my work. I think I love sharing it with you, when I can talk about it this way.”

Then came a last question from me : “When was the last time you spoke to others about your practice with this same passion and directness?

And my coaching request: “Please tell one person each a day about your work, in just the way we have discussed. Start with those close at hand: family & friends; then move on to peers and other potential referral sources.”

I suggested that she would know that she was doing it tight when she found herself sitting up or standing straighter and smiling while she spoke.

With this request, Anna got to work with a new marketing plan. She found that she had a very different experience talking with referral sources, when she did so from a place of passion. She also changed her website and brochure to reflect this new branding of her work.

In her words, “My networking and marketing now feels like a way to honor myself and my work. And I guess it makes sense that referrals are going up — and so is my retention.”

Each month in my newsletter, we will continue to explore skills and strategies that you can use to build a practice that attracts your ideal clients. Want to improve your specific style of communication? Click here to schedule a consultation.

Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, May 2011 Edition

* * What you resist, persists.* *  (Carl Jung)

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Mea Culpa. This email newsletter is late. It was supposed to be done 2 weeks ago and it was supposed to explore a completely different topic. Except that newsletter, the one I thought I was supposed to write, just wouldn’t get itself written.

I tried to write it. I made an outline, and then left it under a pile of papers. I sat down to the computer numerous times, but ended up on the web, downloading music and answering email. I put it as a to-do list on my calendar for a week, but went outside to take a walk at that time.

Finally, yesterday, I accepted the truth. That newsletter was not going to get written right now.

Instead, I needed to write about what is true for me today. And that truth involves how to deal with Resistance — mine and yours.

The Things We Resist

Each week, I talk by phone and in person to lots of small business owners (therapists, coaches, consultants and other professionals) who struggle mightily with their own to-do list.

I hear about administrative tasks that don’t get finished, bills that aren’t paid, marketing calls deferred, financial data not recorded, client notes unwritten, clutter not cleaned.

We avoid doing many things that we know are good for us – eating well, exercising, meditation – and many things that would be very good for our business: setting boundaries, collecting unpaid receipts, marketing, organizing, or planning.

We know what we need to do. We have good intentions. What’s stopping us? We don’t know how to shift our resistance.

The Struggle Inside

Resistance means a struggle is ongoing. You might find the struggle inside yourself, as I have described, or sense resistance externally, say in the marketplace, when your good idea goes nowhere because people don’t want your services.

Resistance, at its core, is a hindrance to the flow of electricity, ideas, change, or progress.

Internal resistance is the number one struggle of the business owners I coach. It stops progress and puts us into a state of permanent limbo.

As a business coach, I help clients understand and shift their resistance to take action that would be good for them and good for their business.

What To Do

1) Get Aligned

The first step to end a war is that all sides must stop fighting.

Now I don’t mean you get to sit on the couch doing nothing. What I mean is you have to reconcile the parts of you in opposition and get them aligned. Your job is not to get agreement from all these various inner voices. You just have to get them moving in the same direction.

In my case, I had one part of me that knew what I should be writing. Another part of me wanted to do anything else. I know that I usually love to write, so I decided to align all parts of myself around the simple act of writing.

I re-ordered my priorities and decided the topic, which was a good one and had been my priority, was now secondary to the act of writing.

I gave myself permission to find a different topic, one that felt more interesting. I asked myself: What would I be eager to write about? The answer came immediately, and this newsletter has, as they say, almost written itself.

What can you align with to get your task completed? It might be a higher goal, a mission, a sense of what is needed right now, etc.

Find your true North and see if that helps to move you forward.

2) Use the Environment

When I am stuck and can’t find internal resources to hold me in a task until it is complete, I look at my immediate external environment. My external environment needs to support me in my work. That environment might include people I can reach out to (I called my coach friend, Chrissy, and got a few minutes of her wisdom about my stuckness – very helpful.)

Or it can be the physical environment (I put flowers on my desk so I could smell spring and enjoy my writing without squirming in my seat.) I put on music to calm me, and gave myself a block of time to write. Instead of feeling a lack of energy, I couldn’t wait to get started.

What is the physical environment that can help you get going? What support can you take from your relationships?

3) Find the Love

In my workshops, I always ask participants to shift from a fear-based practice to a love-based one.

If you feel flooded by fear or anxiety, you will find it hard to take an action for the improvement of your practice. For example, you may need to make several marketing “cold” calls to potential referral sources. You do it, unhappily, with a sense of dread. thinking: “If I don’t make this call, my practice won’t survive. And it’s not just making the call, I have to get results, and soon. If this doesn’t go well, I will be out of work for good.” Imagine the pressure that kind of thinking places on you as you try to develop professional relationships.

If you take action from a basis of love, you make the exact same call, but do it from a different perspective.

You think, “Yes, the situation is dire, but in this moment I will call this person to let him know how much I love the work I am doing. I will see if there is something I can offer, to not just get but also give. I will suggest a win/win suggestion of how we can support each other since times are hard all over. Even if no results come from this call, I can feel good about making this call. Then I will call the next person and the next.” Same action, different basis, different experience of marketing, different feeling about the actions needed to keep a business operating.

According to author Neal Donald Walsch, “Fear is the energy which contracts, closes down, draws in, runs, hides hoards, harms. Love is the energy which expands, opens up, sends out, stays, reveals, shares, heals.”

Feeling resistance based on fear or anxiety? See if you can do it from a basis of love—love of self, love of others, love for your business, or love of the profession. This feeling of love makes you feel expansive and open-hearted, a good way to get  moving in business.

Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, April 2011

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Marketing may be the most reviled word in private practice.

The ever-present need for a business owner to speak to others, become a public figure, and have a strong Internet presence often feels tiring at best, or frightening at worst.

Over the past dozen years of being a business coach, I have helped many therapists with their marketing mindset, helping them shift their feelings, beliefs and actions to market within their comfort zone.

But some therapists tell me that they need even more help: they struggle with a deep-seated resistance to marketing that is very hard to change.

That’s because marketing requires a specific type of energy, that many therapists find in short supply.

During the past year, I have been working with therapists and other small business owners who hate marketing, showing them how to shift their marketing energy and, as a result, change their felt experience of marketing.

In this newsletter article, I want to show you a link between your marketing ability and the energetic center that affects your ability to speak out.

Welcome to 5th Chakra Marketing!

The 5th Chakra

Chakras are a Hindu concept of bodily energetic centers.

In Indian medicine, your 5th Chakra is located near your throat and governs your ability to express yourself and have a full, strong voice – both literally and symbolically.

Energetically, having a balanced 5th Chakra helps you:

•    speak your truth, personally and professionally
•    hear and be heard on a deep level
•    express yourself clearly and eloquently

If you are having trouble finding your voice on behalf of your practice — giving talks, meeting professionals, writing, finishing your website, sending out letters — freeing up this energy may be a good solution.

Finding Your Business Voice

Mona Lisa Schultz, MD, PhD, neurological psychiatrist and medical intuitive, is the author of The Intuitive Advisor (2009.)

She explains that an energetic block at the 5th Chakra can result in physical symptoms of throat-related  illness (bronchitis, losing your voice, TMJ, thyroid problems.) But the symtpoms can also be psychological and make you feel stuck when you try to speak out.

Getting Unblocked

A successful marketer needs to be expressive and balance assertiveness (speaking out) with compliance (listening.)

In 5th Chakra terms, Schultz offers a framework for this balance that points the way to several good solutions. You can learn to match your energy with the tasks required to be a good marketer.

Intrigued? See how to identify your communication style and find an energetic balance, so that marketing becomes easier and more successful.

Your Communication Doorway

Dr. Schultz identifies several communication “doorways” or categories:

Locked Door: You shut out the public and feel shy, or fearful or very private. You worry about being overexposed. You may have a lot to say and, in your mind, can find yourself talking to a higher power or to yourself, but in you say very little out loud to others. In meetings you get tongue-tied and the thought of networking is very stressful.

Screen Door:  You do meet with others but the conversations are often one-sided. You listen more than you talk and appear receptive, but withhold your thoughts and feelings. Like the wind blowing through a screen door, your point of view gets blown away by the strength of someone else’s opinions.

Swinging Door: This ideal position signifies that you have a natural, flexible, assert point of view but also can listen and accede to others. You can move in and out of professional marketing conversations that make them feel like a dance, not a duty.

Here are some strategies to help you shift or enhance your 5th Chakra energy when it is blocked.

Strategies

When I became a business coach, the one skill that I most wanted to teach therapists was how to speak about their work with passion and clarity.

I spent months trying to formulate the best way to help my colleagues do this seemingly simple task–talk about themselves in a lucid, positive and energetic manner. I finally found a formula that helps a lot of therapists do this well. I call this strategy articulating your basic message.

When you find the words you love to say, your basic message comes through loud and clear: “I am passionate about what I get to do each day. I love my work. I help others in an important way.”

Finding Your Right Balance

Finding your voice is key. But asserting your message is not enough. For energetic balance, you need to get into a dialogue, not hold a monologue.

You do this by making sure that in your marketing — whether you are networking, at meetings, speaking, writing articles, creating a website, blog, or workshops – you speak and listen, in equal measure. You create give and take.

Its easy to make sure that your marketing becomes a dialogue when you are talking with a professional or a referral source. But even if you are the only one speaking – when you are in the front of the room, you can still listen deeply to the non-verbals of the audience.

The best writing causes a reader to self-reflect. The best websites help a reader “find his or herself” in the text. Express yourself as you give and take.

Your 5th Chakra will thank you and, by the way, this is the easiest path to good marketing!

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Resource:

Schultz, Mona Lisa. The Intuitive Advisor. (Hay House, Carlsbad, 2009.)

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Published in the Private Practice Success Newsletter, March 2011 Edition

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Each month in this newsletter, I help you think about the future of your private practice. This month, I explore how to develop closer ties with medical referral sources.

Given our uncertain economy, those who own and operate a private practice have some important choices to make about their future.

In an earlier newsletter (read it here), I explained that the future of your private practice will follow one of three tracks or business models:

• The consumer-driven practice
• The insurance-driven practice
• The theory or belief-driven practice

In my December email  I explored the first model listed: the consumer-driven practice. Read about that model here:

The Insurance-driven Practice

This month, I look at the second business model: The insurance-driven practice.

Even if you don’t get involved with insurance, this month’s article has ideas that can help you generate more referrals.

I will explain what pharmaceutical representatives already know about gaining entree to doctors. I will show you how to adapt some of the strategies they use that might help you have more influence.

The Challenge

Psychologist and author Nick Cummings, often called the father of behavioral mental health, says that we therapists have lost our rightful place within the medical model.

According to Cummings, “We have drifted so far away from health care that we have created two silos. We have a huge silo called health care, and it gets a trillion dollars a year. And over here we have a tiny silo called mental health that gets the crumbs.”

Cummings believes that embracing a medical model is one way to be more profitable and viable. (“An Interview with Nick Cummings, PhD. by Victor Yalom”2008.)

A primary way to thrive within a medical or insurance-based private practice is to develop strong referral sources with the medical community: doctors, nurses, and other traditional referral sources.

Many therapists want these referrals and have tried their best to make contact with doctors, without success.

Therapists who need this type of referral can’t help but wonder: What does it take to make this happen?

The Hallway Hand-off

One big problem is that the average therapist, approaching a busy doctor’s office often can’t get past the front desk to see doctors.

And even when a therapist does get in to see a doctor, there are obstacles to referrals. Patients can have a hard time overcoming some reluctance about needing therapy, and getting themselves from their doctor’s office to ours.

Ideally, Cummings says, referrals from doctor to therapist would be easier and much more direct.

In the best of all possible worlds, Cummings suggests that a mental health practice would operate within the same office as the referring physician.

Then patients seeing their doctor could be “handed-off” to a therapist right in the hallway, without the patient having to leave the facility.

Closer Ties

This is a great vision for a medical model, but most therapists have offices off-site.

So the challenge is this: How can you, as a private practitioner, approximate the “hallway hand-off” with a physician or medical referral source?

I have some ideas about how you can do this.  Read on to see how.

Learning from the Reps

We can learn a few moves from the masters of the hallway hand-off:  pharmaceutical representatives.

They have perfected the way to get close to doctors (gain access) and help doctors refer (write prescriptions) for their products.

The pharmaceutical reps achieve results using three basic strategies. The good news is that, with some modifications, you can implement these same steps.

If your goal is to increase your referrals and close ties to medical professionals, these strategies are important to consider.

Best Hallway Hand-off  Strategies

The strategies that pharmaceutical reps use fall under these three areas:

• Presence
• Preparation
• Packaging.

Presence

Physicians (and their gatekeepers) have little time to spend with patients, let alone with marketing or pharmaceutical representatives.

The pharmaceutical representatives understand this. Yet they need to have a presence. Here is how they make this work:

They visit frequently, but make sure their visits are for very short duration (statistically they spend no more than 2-5 minutes per visit.)

They make each visit educational and focus on giving the docs useful information. A pharmaceutical rep will visit physicians repeatedly, on a 1 week to 2 week cycle. They have very clear objectives for each visit.

I know you don’t have the resources (time, money, backing) for marketing that a rep has, but you can borrow from this model.

Start with a small list of physicians who are in close proximity (remember the metaphor of the hallway hand-off — keep your target list of doctors close to your office.)

Pharmaceutical reps understand that physicians have come to expect routine and frequent visits.

Don’t be shy.  Ask the front desk what days the physician or key staff see representatives and then set up a workable routine. Maybe you can’t visit weekly, but how about monthly? Or every other month for 5 minutes?

Preparation

Have you ever seen a pharmaceutical rep enter a doctor’s office? They are well prepared – so you must be too. Be professionally dressed and groomed. Bring materials, but keep things organized and easy to reach (think briefcase.) Plan your visit ahead of time and decide what to say.

Have a script and follow it, but be relaxed. Use a friendly and conversational approach when you talk with the staff, nurses, and doctors. Make your contact a dialogue, not a monologue.

Keep a journal and afterward, track what happened so you can build on the relationship.

Packaging

As Lori Moshier of Novaetus, Inc., a healthcare marketing firm, explains, physicians are “conditioned” to expect that you will make it easy for them to refer. Package your marketing materials.

Have tools such as fax referral forms, on-line referral forms, brochures with cards attached that are easy for the docs to give out to patients. Maybe they will let you put out a display of your materials on a shelf within easy reach; then when you visit, you can keep it filled.

(See more ideas from Lori here)

Your Action Steps

OK, let’s summarize some of the steps you can take to create your own version of the hallway hand-off:

• Ask the front desk what days the physician or key staff see representatives and then follow this routine.
• Develop a routine “call cycle” of a few physicians that you visit often.
• Make sure that you determine who makes the referral – the doctor, nurse, practice manager or others. Develop relationships with these centers of influence in the practice, not just with the doctor.
• Make the visits informational for the doctor. Focus on data the doctor can use –patient results you are getting, special tools you offer, or programs you deliver. Say it all, but say it quickly.
• Make it easy for the doctor to refer by supplying the doctor or referral source with brochures, cards and packaging that is easy for them to give out to patients.
• Send a thank you for each and every referral.

That’s a start. Need help to move forward with this process? Schedule a consult with Lynn by clicking here.  More next month!