Alright, this is one of those blog posts where I share some honest truths about our industry that many of you aren’t going to want to hear.. but if you hang in there with me, I promise what I have to share should be profoundly helpful. I’ve been a coach for thousands of practice owners over the last 12 years. I’ve seen just about every challenge that you’ve faced. I’ve personally gone through many of these challenges myself, from the ‘practice roller coaster’ of continuous ups and downs, to wondering if I’m offering the very BEST to my patients, to feeling frustrated with how many referrals I’m getting, to feeling limited by the constraints of a one on one schedule 4-5 days a week.
The journey of building a successful practice has ongoing challenges and pitfalls; there’s no way around it. There are no hand outs or short cuts. It takes hard work and unwavering commitment. The ones who succeed at a high level give this everything they have. This is the reason I maxed out my practice as well. I was ‘all in’ and did not have a plan B.
Now, here’s what I have noticed about our industry– we have far too many practice owners who don’t quite take their work seriously enough. They come into their practice with a pretty casual attitude, one that says, ‘It’ll all just work itself out.’
By and large, that was my initial mindset going into private practice. I had the belief that since I was a good person who genuinely wanted to help and had decent clinical skills, it would be smooth sailing. Here’s the thing: I had to get this mindset pounded out of me by the actual reality of building a business. I had to wake the *f* up. I had to get over my sense of arrogance and entitlement that wanted to bypass actual hard work and maturity because I was sure that what I was doing was spiritually aligned.
I see many practitioners holding onto this same flimsy, disempowered mindset. It is time for our collective profession to take a bold step forward in evolution and maturation and become fully empowered adults in the way we go about building our practice. In a nutshell, here’s what this means:
1) STOP acting like this is supposed to be easy. I’ve seen countless practitioners try one or two things to build their practice, not have immediate success, then basically give up. Their mindset is anti-entrepreneurial. A TRUE entrepreneur has a mindset that is steeped in resiliency and being solution-oriented. They do whatever it friggin’ takes. They fail over and over again and they don’t EVER give up. They love the daily grind and the overcoming of challenges as much as they love the breakthroughs and results.
So many holistic practitioners get into this industry to bypass conventional rules and norms. That was certainly my experience. I decided to pursue the healing arts so I could do things on MY terms and not cave into the soul sucking reality of a career that was mediocre at best. This is an admirable mission.. and one that takes courage to follow. What I see time and again, however, is that because we have taken an unconventional path, we somehow expect that we can bypass the conventions of hard work, discipline, and maturity. The ‘New Age’ and holistic health movements are, in my opinion, infected with a mindset of entitlement that undermines their potential power and authority. You want more people to respect your work? To see you as the authority? Then get out there and hustle your ass off for the next 5-10 years, learning everything you can, becoming a master at your craft, and taking your business seriously.
Hard work combined with innovation and automation is the gateway to prosperity and freedom.
So many practice owners complain about how unstable their business is, or how hard it is to keep their schedule full, all the while completely ignoring this statement. They expect it to be handed to them. (And if you feel judged, please know that I am speaking directly from my OWN experience as much as I’m calling out anyone else).
2) STOP acting like it’s spiritually acceptable to devalue yourself or shy away from the spotlight. Can I tell you how many practitioners have told me that they will NEVER commit to marketing because they are introverted, shy, or sensitive and can’t handle being seen on a large scale?
Look- you own a business…and your business THRIVES on visibility. There’s no way around that. If you buy into the story that marketing is beneath you because you don’t wanna put yourself out there, all that you’re doing is buying into chronic self-sabotage. On top of that, do you really believe it’s humble to deny your worth, to undercharge for your services, or to give your clients every ounce of your energy to help them heal, leaving you drained?
Can you flip this around and see the arrogance of this way of being? When you buy into these limiting beliefs around self-worth, you are denying others of the sacred opportunity to get the help they need through your unique gifts. Stop playing small. ALL of these limiting stories are just that– STORIES! They are not real. They can change anytime. It’s entirely up to you to let go of these stories. And this brings me to point #3.
3) STOP acting like change is so damn hard. I can’t tell you how many practitioners I’ve worked with who are stuck on the healing bandwagon in their own life, constantly looking for the next method to change/fix/improve their situation. They come to me to absorb whatever new approach I can offer them to get more empowered and abundant. You wanna know what my advice largely is? Stop trying to fix yourself. Just stop it. Live your life and be humble. See your stories as totally fake… and optional. Stop buying into the belief that it’s hard and takes a long time to finally wake up and stop your struggle.
Often times, the smartest most sophisticated people have the greatest degree of layering and defenses against actual transformation. Here’s a statement I’ve heard hundreds of times:
“If it was as easy as you’re saying Kevin, I would have already done it.”
Uh, no. You see, you’ll change ONLY when you have no tolerance for the status quo. And when that happens, change is NEVER hard and always happens instantaneously. As long as you tolerate mediocrity and have wiggle room for being less than your best self, you’ll continue to toil along as always. To truly change, it takes a burning intensity within to restructure your state of being, your very identity. I repeat- this is NOT hard and it does not take a long time. It’s all about willingness.
If you believe change is a slow, hard process, guess what types of clients you’ll attract? You guessed it– people who don’t really change. Wanna know why so many practitioners burn out? It’s this exact dynamic. The healing process becomes too complicated and sluggish. Your patients don’t need an encyclopedia of information from you to heal their situation. They don’t need you to be the most erudite in your field, with the most advanced degrees and seminar certifications. They need you to show up with a heightened state of Presence, where you energetically radiate the conviction that they are already whole… their problems aren’t actually ‘real’ as they think they are, and they can make profound shifts in an instant.
If you OWN that truth in your own life, you’ll radiate it to your clients.
4. STOP thinking so much and start DOING. Want to know what it takes to build your practice FAST? It takes action. Daily action. Inspired action. Courageous action. Want to know what will KILL your potential? Staying wrapped in your head all day, overthinking things, waiting until the timing is just right, or your new website or brochure or blog post is absolutely perfect before deploying it. Screw perfection. Get out there and fail. Make a ton of mistakes. Who cares if it sucks? If people say crappy things on Facebook? Just DO it.
The irony is that the smartest people often have the hardest time building a business. They make it all far too complicated (I was guilty of this for many years as well). None of this is rocket science. Even online technology. You are overwhelmed by running a Facebook ad, setting up a pixel, or creating a landing page? Come on. Be stronger than that. You can outsource that stuff for dirt cheap and have someone do it in a few minutes. Technology isn’t your stumbling block. Fear is. Doubt is. Self consciousness is.
If you get overwhelmed by the easy stuff, how can you possibly handle a full, booming practice full of demanding people who are in pain? You gotta up your standard and CHOOSE to be a warrior in the day to day managing of your activities and resources. If you easily get overwhelmed in a way that deflates your momentum, I have bad news for you– your practice is always going to be a struggle. It’s a sign of strength to be an aware, conscious person who feels life on a deep level; it’s a sign of weakness being an overly sensitive person who is easily overwhelmed. Two vastly different polarities. If it’s taking you 10 months to have a website built, or 10 hours to make a 3 minute Youtube video, you need to get yourself out of the way. Productivity creates wealth. Perfectionism creates poverty.
5. STOP with the scarcity mindset. Never, ever again allow yourself to utter the words, “Oh, that’s too expensive… or I can’t afford it.” Enough of that. If you think a $500, a $1,000, or even a $5,000 coaching program or website is “too expensive” to help you create a fulfilling 6-7 figure business, it’s time to reset your financial blueprint. If you are unwilling to invest in yourself or believe that help is too expensive, guess what potential clients are gonna say about your services? You get what you give. Be bold with money. Be courageous. Manage risk well.. but for the love of God, stop trying to cut corners and be cheap in the way you build your business. You expect a client to spend $100+ on treatments with you if your website looks like it was built for $100? Or you have a business card that looks like the free trial offer from Vista Print? Or you are a perpetual freebie seeker who soaks up the generosity of others to get ahead?
Look, I get that money can be tight and you have to manage it effectively. What I am talking about here is more of an energy, a vibrational attitude toward money than anything else. Being cheap will create major constraints in your business growth. When I do a strategy call with someone, I can usually determine within a few seconds what their actual relationship with money is. You want to help more people? Actually make a more profound impact? Wake up to the importance of money in your life. Value its role. Welcome it into the equation. Invest in YOU. The more you do this, the more it’ll cycle back to you. And yes, you can do this without being even the slightest bit greedy.
Here’s another one ya gotta let go of: “I need to think about it.”
9 out of 10 times, you don’t need to think about it. This is just a stall tactic based on fear. In your gut, you always know what needs to be done. Train yourself to TRUST your gut instincts more, even if sometimes it goes against the grain or feels illogical. When people tell me, “I am not sure if I’m ready“, or, “I need to think about it“, usually what they are saying is, “I am too afraid to trust myself.”
You don’t like it when prospective clients say these things to you, right? Do the inner work and eradicate this kind of wishy washiness from your consciousness and it will be 99% less of an issue in YOUR business.
6. STOP being stuck in survival mode. I get that you may not be making the money you want or need from your practice yet. I get that your current circumstances might be challenging. I get that you might have a crap ton of student loan debt or other forms of debt. I’ve been there myself and have not had anything handed to me along the way. But, let me tell you this.. and I hope that it sinks in: Your circumstances don’t matter.
Let me repeat that: Your circumstances don’t matter.
If you are waiting for your circumstances to change in order to feel better or validate your self-worth, you are STUCK on the wheel of suffering. Being stuck in survival mode, where your energy is contracted around money, you spend a fair amount of time worrying about your future and how you’ll provide for your family, and mentally spinning around ways to solve your problems, is 100% optional… and you can CHOOSE to stop doing that to yourself NOW.
Even more so, your circumstances won’t and can’t actually change long-term UNTIL you choose to let go of the struggle of human survival. Yes, you have bills to pay. You have debt to overcome. I get it. But you do NOT have to suffer with this stuff. The struggle is optional.
It takes courage and a bit of a rebellious streak to wake up from the trance of survival mode and proclaim a new way of being in this world regardless of your current circumstances. Our world hammers it into us to get our validation from what’s happening outside of us. When money is showing up in abundance ‘out there’, we feel good– relieved, confident, motivated. When the money dries up, we feel bad– worried, doubtful, despondent. This is the cycle ALL of us have been conditioned to buy into to one degree or another. Guess what? It’s the hallmark of victimization and limitation.
Being empowered means that you CHOOSE your emotional stance and vibrational attitude based on your preferred state of being. You generate these qualities from deep within… and you do it unconditionally simply because it’s how you want to show up and express yourself. You assert the level of confidence and inspiration that you want, and you DEMAND this of yourself because you have a baseline standard that says, ‘this is who I am.. this is what I have to offer.. and it can’t be messed with… no matter what happens out there.’
As you start to assert this level of unconditional confidence, you are planting new seeds that MUST germinate in your outer reality and shift your circumstances. Until then, you are just waiting.. and waiting.. and feeling BAD… and waiting some more. As a business owner, waiting is poison. NEVER, EVER wait again. Who cares if your circumstances suck? If you’re in a mountain of debt? If you were hoping to make 1 million last year, but only made 1/4 of that?
Assert your preferred state of being… and make this your #1 passion in life. Wake up every morning and CHOOSE who you are going to be. Your circumstances don’t matter.
Look, I get that some of what I’ve said here could be interpreted as offensive or judgmental. Please know that I am ONLY saying this because I have a huge amount of passion for this industry.. and I want more than anything for you to be successful. I’ve been a business coach for 12 years and for most that time, I’d define myself as a really nice, patient coach. But ya know what? A lot of the time, being nice doesn’t lead to true change. In fact, being too nice can easily lead to people feeling more comfortable with the worst parts of themselves.
If you’re sick of playing small and ready to roll up your sleeves and take action, scaling your practice to 6 or 7 figures, this program will be an ideal fit.
