One way to look at the big pile of people out there who might become your clients is to divide them into two groups.

The first is the kind that already knows what you do, and is looking for it. This group is small. But they’re sooo close to being your client. They’re already searching–you just need to be found.

The second group needs to be educated. They don’t know what you do, or how it can help. This group is huge. But you have to find them, and convince them.

Finding takes work. It involves relationships and credibility and time and money and effort. But it’s critical. You need to be finding.

Being found takes some work, too, but the convincing part is a lot easier. That’s why we all like being found.

The trick is that being found doesn’t look quite like it used to.

Being found used to be straightforward. You did something easy like put an ad in the Yellow Pages. Anyone looking for “massage therapy” could find you in the list. Getting good at being found just meant that you called yourself “AAA Massage Therapy” to get to the top of the list, or you bought the biggest ad. For that small, but already-convinced slice of the pie, that was a simple way to play the game. And generally the game could be won with a big enough budget.

The new “found” looks different. It’s not about your Yellow Pages ad, or the big sign outside.

• When someone searches for a massage therapist in their area, and your website comes up at the top of Google? That’s you being found.
• When someone is looking for a solution for infertility and your acupuncture practice comes up in Google Adwords? Yep. You. Being found.
• When someone searches for “Yourtown Chiropractor” and your Google Places listing comes up first because you took the time to claim it and complete it? That’s you being found again.

That’s just Google. You can add Facebook or Bing, or mobile search or whatever floats your boat. The difference? Not that it’s online, but that it’s cheaper. You can now be found by trying harder, instead of spending harder.

The new “found” rewards thinkers, adopters and triers. Not spenders. But the moral is the same: Spend plenty of time finding. But don’t forget to be found, too.

The horse shelter at Raza's Clinic

Our friend Raza Shah, ND has a large Mennonite patient base–so large, in fact, that he actually has a place to shelter horses while patients have their appointments. So cool.

In The Practitioner’s Journey, we wrote about how my dentist used to amaze me by thanking me in person for each referral over the past year as I sat in his chair. It made me feel great, of course, and I was sooo impressed he remembered.

The truth is, he wasn’t really remembering–he or his staff simply wrote the names of people I referred in my file. As he sat with me, he could look over and say, “Thanks for referring Lisa.” A free, simple tool to get a simple, but important task done. And like good magic, even when the trick is revealed, I’m still impressed.

Raza’s like my dentist. His gift is connecting with people, and it’s important to Raza to remember the little, personal things. The problem, of course, is that you really can’t remember them–not all, anyway. To accomplish similar magic to my dentist, his office uses sticky notes in the file to remind them of the little things that are important in the lives of their patients.

“One patient had missed a previous appointment, which was very rare. When she called to reschedule, we found out she’d missed her appointment because her horse had fallen in a ditch the night before. Carol put a sticky note in the file that the horse’s name was Tony. When she came back in, I asked, ‘How’s Tony?’” – Raza Shah, ND

Needless to say, the patient was thrilled that he asked. I love this. It’s an elegant, painless and basically free way to remember important things, and communicate them between practitioners and staff.

The sticky note, though, isn’t really what this is about. The sticky note is just the manifestation of actually caring. It’s no different than putting a note in your calendar to remind you of a friend’s surgery, or your mom’s birthday. It’s just a way to make your clients feel like their lives are important. Because…they are, aren’t they? (And, no, writing it down doesn’t mean you care less, or that it’s a gimmick. The fact that you write it down at all means you care more than most.)

Your patients might not arrive by horse. But for the price of a few sticky notes, you can still perform magic of your own and show you care.

Note: I love that patients arrive by horse. Anyone else know of out-of-the ordinary practice set ups or patients? Do share…   -Dan

We recently spoke to students at The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine on the theme of “Your First Ten Patients”. A good time as always, but we were nicely upstaged by superstar Mary Caracoglia, ND, who told the story of her remarkable first year in practice.

Mary received her license to practice and opened her doors in October. Twelve months later she had taken home over $80,000.

This is the how she did it.

What You Need to Know First

I want you to see this through the right lens. It’d be easy to dismiss this as good luck, the result of some special skill, or setting up in an area with no competition. None of that is true.

• Mary’s area is “saturated”. The only naturopathic college in Ontario is in Toronto, and many practitioners stay there after graduation. While I don’t buy the competition excuse, really–and Mary is proof that it’s not a big factor–you should know that Mary accomplished what she did in a market that was by no means free of competition.

• Mary’s not “special“. (No offense, Mary ) She’s wonderful, positive, bright and energetic, but most practitioners I meet have those traits in abundance. Like you, though, she has moments of uncertainty, fear, and disillusionment, too. In her words:

“I want to start off by saying that something most grads don’t talk about is the feeling that just after all of this school, all of these tests, all of this clinical experience…you can feel completely INCOMPETENT and scared out of your mind.” - Mary Caracoglia, ND

Mary’s just like you, folks. The difference is not in her personality. It’s in her behavior. Here’s my distillation of how Mary did what she did.

Strategy 1: Start Early

“Most grads from my class didn’t look for space during the summer… instead of starting work in October which was the earliest you could start once getting your NPLEX results, they had to wait until January.” – Mary Caracoglia, ND

Mary graduated in April, but had to study all summer and write board exams in August in order to finally get a license to practice by mid-autumn. Most practitioners simply wait until then to start the process of opening their practice. Not Mary. By June she was spending a day a week working on her practice–a practice that wouldn’t start until October.

Why it worked:

Starting early gave her several advantages:

• Study breaks
• A jump on the rest of her graduating colleagues
• Time to form relationships
• Time to pick the right location

The first two are nice, but not earth-shattering. The last two are game-changers, as we’ll see.

Strategy 2: Choose Your Location Wisely

“You need to spend a lot of time thinking about what you want…keep in mind that what you think you want will change the more offices you see and people you meet. I literally cold-called as many places as possible.” - Mary Caracoglia, ND

The last benefit of starting early–time to find the right location–was one Mary put to great use. She called over 40 offices inquiring if they were interested in renting space, and then gradually booked meetings to see the space, meet the players, and get more details.

Why it worked:

I don’t know of anyone who’s looked at that many spaces, but the logic here is pretty clear:

• Other than buying a practice, your single biggest opportunity for new clients when you start your practice is referrals from other health care professionals…
• …The easiest way to do get those referrals is to set up shop with someone busy who will refer to you like crazy…
• …The easiest way to do that is to look around. A lot.

That’s what Mary did. She found two places with the right fit, that would benefit her the most. And by “benefit the most” I mean deliver referrals. A ten percent better split and a nice waiting room don’t mean anything if you’re not seeing any patients. You need the referral traffic.

If you’re starting out, or thinking of moving your practice, do some speed dating. Get on the phone. Visit as many practices as you can. And if you’re not thinking of moving? Maybe you should be…:)

Strategy 3: Focus Your Marketing on Personal Connection

“I met a great number of other health care professionals and created a referral network.

I literally stood at the front desk or hung around the waiting room in the offices introducing myself to patients checking in and out with reception. I told them who I was, and offered them a free consultation on the spot. Most people were willing and interested.” - Mary Caracoglia, ND

Why it worked:

Health care is a business that delivers very personal services to people. It’s no surprise, then, that the best way to grow that business is by forming personal relationships with people.

Mary did the usual marketing stuff. She’s online, but not in a big way. She wrote articles. She has a website and blog. But her most of her marketing was about creating relationships with people. Meeting local practitioners and business owners. Talking to prospective patients. Mary’s job is to treat people, in person. So she went out there and met people, in person.

Sound squishy? Hard? Not your bag, baby? It wasn’t entirely easy for Mary, either….which leads to the next strategy.

Strategy 4: Stretch Yourself

“That’s something [lack of confidence] you need to get over very quickly. There’s nothing special about me. I’m not shy, but it’s uncomfortable to go to a networking party by yourself. I was terrified. But you do it. And it gets easier.”

“You will have days where you question your decisions and question the path you chose…days where you need to push through because you are completely out of your comfort zone “- Mary Caracoglia, ND

The Mary that graduated in April, and the one that had a successful practice a year later were the same person, personality-wise. But they’re world’s apart in terms of their skills, experience and wisdom. Mary succeeded because she learned. And not just any old learning. She learned to connect with people. To market herself. To talk about what she does and why it works. She learned things that are scary to think about, but that deliver results.

Why it worked:

What Mary grasped intuitively is something we can all take to heart: The skills that got you to graduation aren’t the same ones you need to successfully grow your practice.

To grow a successful practice you need to continue to learn. It’s the way out of the Cave, as we call it in The Practitioner’s Journey. The good news is that you’ve already proven you can learn. Now, though, you’re going to have to do it in a new way: without a net. Far fewer lectures and textbooks, far more being scared out of your pants. You need to take some risks. Emotional ones, just like Mary.

Strategy 5: Decide to be Busy

“I was sick of hearing that it takes three years. You can’t expect people to just find you…be proactive and find them….Other practitioners are sitting in their offices. I’m parking myself in the waiting room. I’m talking to people.” - Mary Caracoglia, ND

Mary said one phrase to the students, and then later to me, many times:

“I just wanted to be busy.”

Seem simple? Don’t blow this off. This philosophy is what drove Mary’s actions.

• She started right away, staying busy during her study summer schedule.
• She decided to start two locations, instead of one, knowing that she wasn’t likely to stay busy full-time in one office right away.
• Rather than sit in her office and hope, she stayed busy hanging around the waiting room, meeting new patients as they arrived to see other professionals.

Why it worked:

1. Practice success is directly related to practice activity. Note that Mary didn’t say, “I just wanted to have a lot of patients.” She said she wanted to be busy. And that was 100% within her control–she could be as active as she decided to be.

2. She was busy with the right stuff (see strategies 1 through 4). It’s easy to be “busy” hiding in your office, updating your FB status and checking email. Wrong kind of busy.

Can You Copy Mary?

Can anyone do this? I think so. Your mileage will vary, based on billing rates and practice models and a hundred other things, but the blueprint is there:

1. Don’t wait
2. Find a productive place to grow
3. Get out there in the world
4. Do what you’re afraid of
5. Stay busy and focused

It’s not rocket science. Just that age old recipe of elbow grease, focus, courage, persistence and all the other good stuff that makes practices–and the world–go ’round.

And for you veterans: Your first day of practice might have been long ago. But you can have another first day tomorrow, right?

The greatest misconception among health care professionals is that your training is enough to make you successful.

It isn’t. It’s not anyone’s fault, but the challenge, whether you’re in your first year or tenth, remains the same:

The skills that got you to graduation aren’t the
same ones you need to successfully grow your practice.

School taught you how to help your clients. But it probably didn’t teach you that much about how to find them. It didn’t teach you how to market yourself, manage your cash flow, deal with staff or provide amazing customer service.

So what now?

The good news is that those are all learn-able skills, and the one thing you’ve proven you can do is learn.

The trick, though, is that you can’t learn the missing stuff the same way you learned the other stuff. You can’t learn business the way you learned how to rub, poke, adjust, supplement and coach. Sure you should read books and take classes–there are great people doing great things out there. But you’re going to need something else, too: a little trial and error.

What makes us uncomfortable about learning the new skills we need isn’t the trial and error, though. It’s that we don’t get to learn them in the same context. You don’t get to do it all from the safety of a classroom or textbook. You don’t get to practice marketing on pretend clients and classmates. You have to do it all without a net. You have to get out there.

You can’t change the fact that you need to keep learning. But you can change how you look at the new context. Is working without a net scary? Squishy? Unethical? Dumb? Not for you?

Or is it the last piece of the puzzle that finally lets you do what you’ve wanted to all along?

I like the last way better.

Hi All,

Next year is almost here! Thanks to the many (wow!) of you who took advantage of the pre-order special on The Practitioner’s Journey workbook. The offer ends on December 31. Before then, you can get the digital workbook for just $9.95, or the original eBook and the workbook together for just $14.95. Click here to order. (Update: The workbook is here! You can get both the eBook and the workbook/stats package here.)

-Dan

The New Year is just around the corner. Here are four ideas to help you hit the ground running…in the right direction…

Strategy 1: Pick One Big Thing to Work On
It’s a new year, and the temptation is to try to radically transform everything. Forget it. You’re not going to change everything in your life or your practice overnight. Pick what you’re most passionate about. Or what will have the biggest impact. Solve your biggest problem. But pick ONE big thing. If you fix that thing, you can always move on to the next one, but start with one?

And while you’re at it, decide on what “done” looks like for that one thing. Things like “make more money,” or “grow my practice” don’t have finish lines. No finish line means you run forever.

One race at a time, with a finish line, will keep you focused.

Strategy 2: Decide That Your Practice Must Serve You

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d say, “You’re not the boss of me!”? It’s time to regress a few years and put that tactic back to use in your practice. It’s time to decide who’s the boss. Here’s the org chart as I see it:

In short: Your clients are the boss of you. You’re the boss of your practice. 

Your practice works in the mail room. It’s job is to serve everyone. Especially you. It’s there to make sure people get care, and you get paid. Nothing more.

Make the decision that your practice is there to serve YOU, which it does by providing you with income. I’m not kidding.

What does that look like in practice? You pay yourself first. That may sound trite, but it’s amazing how the bills always seem to find a way to get paid, but not so much the practitioner. Even just changing the sequence of paying yourself first, then the bills, can make a difference.

Letting your practice push you around is like choosing to let your car drive itself. It’s a painful and costly process that never gets you where you want to go.

Strategy 3: Plan to Take a Risk

Since most practitioners don’t start off as entrepreneurs, they also don’t tend to be big risk-takers. In fact, your job may well be about spending your time trying to reduce risk–the risk of injury, the risk of disease, the risks of aging, the risks of modern lifestyle.

The problem, of course, is that part of what you get paid for in practice is taking risks. That means if you want your reward to increase, you may have to increase your risk as well.

What it looks like in practice:

• Hire someone. Do you really need help, but are afraid to take the leap? Maybe it’s time to try. You don’t have to hire someone full time – try a smaller commitment first.
• Bigger space. Are you busting at the seams, but can’t do more in your existing space? Maybe it’s time for a move.
• New offering. New service? Product? What can you invest in to bring to your practice that will offer more to your existing clients, or attract new ones?
• Try a new marketing technique. Particularly one that scares you, like networking or public speaking.
• Invest in yourself. Do you understand marketing? Finance? Managing others? Spend some time and money on yourself to fill in the missing pieces.

There are of course, many more. What will yours be?

 Strategy 4: Choose to Be in Business This Year

More accurately, that should be “choose to accept that you’re in business,” because you don’t get a choice if you’re running a practice. It comes with the territory, and everything works better if you just choose to swim with the current.

Why? I think our free ebook, The Gift, says it best. You can download it for free. No signups. No catch.

What it looks like in practice:

• I think it looks a lot like this.

We’d love to hear your suggestions on how you plan to make the most of next year. Good luck in 2012!

Even the most devout anti-resolutionist has a tough time not thinking ahead at this time of year, and we’re no exception. If you’re like us, your thoughts are turning toward the New Year, and how to improve your practice.

Here are three upcoming happenings here at TPJ for 2012 that we think will make a difference for you, including a way to get The Practitioner’s Journey for just $5 if you haven’t already got your copy.

1. How To Make 80K in Your First Year of Practice
We had the pleasure of interviewing a fantastic new practitioner who took home $80,000 in her first year of practice. I’m going to share her story early in the New Year. It’s interesting stuff. Her story should be required reading. And you can all do what she did – even if it’s not your first year of practice.

2. The Practitioner’s Journey Workbook – NOW AVAILABLE! Click here to order

We get a lot of feedback on The Practitioner’s Journey, but it’s the framework – the figurative journey that helps people better understand their practice growth – that gets the most comments.

What we’ve been asked for is a way to better put that framework to active work in practice. Enter The Practitioner’s Journey Workbook:

• Some 30 pages of exercises, assessments and tools to help find your difference, attract new clients, and leverage your existing ones
• Print it out as a paper workbook, or fill it out the interactive PDF right onscreen on your computer or iPad.
• We’ve also added an easy to use, but powerful spreadsheet tool for tracking your practice statistics. You can easily track your numbers, and watch your practice grow in vivid color. You just enter the basic data, it cranks out simple metrics that give you insight into your progress.
• If you haven’t yet read the book, you can get the original eBook, and workbook/stats package for a reduced price.

Click here to order your copy!

3. Our New Book: The Go-To Guru
After all the websites and business cards, the tweets and posts, the speaking gigs and networking, all practitioners are really trying to do the same thing: get attention.

We’re all clamoring for attention, and the truth is that attention (and the business that comes with it) flows to those best able to establish themselves as what we call The Go-To Guru. That’s the title of our new book, and it comes out in 2012. Woo! It’s based on our experiences and interviews with dozens of successful “G2G’s”, and the principles they use to become the practitioners of choice in their area. And, of course, like The Practitioner’s Journey, it’s not quite like other books…   Pre-order info and reader discounts to follow!

Here’s to 2012!

Thank you all for reading, sharing, and spreading the word.

-Dan

Tara emailed me the other day:

“Just pulled in to the grocery store and then pulled right back out because I remembered you needed a quarter to get a cart, which of course I did not have. The moral? Don’t make it tough for your customers to spend money at your store – the quarter is about them, not about me and they lost $100 worth of business because of it today.

Now I’m sitting in the their competitor’s parking lot writing this email.”

Compare that with another email Tara sent me a couple of days later:

“I was just thinking about how delighted I was with the fact the hotel had a little container on the bathroom vanity that contained Q-tips. Such a little thing, but it makes me want to stay here again. How much did that cost the hotel? Hardly anything, and they have a delighted customer.  It’s the little, inexpensive, but unexpected things that truly delight.”

In both of these cases, pennies were traded for dollars. In the first case, the store reached for pennies and lost dollars. In the second, the company gave away the pennies, and got dollars in return.

But the real story here is one of service. Providing it–or not–is what’s driving the flow of pennies to dollars. Tara and I are both service geeks. There’s a lot of joy in good service. Money, too, I think. It’s worth thinking about where you’re exchanging dollars and pennies in your own practice.

What’s most important about service in our industry, though, is what it means.

Most of us aren’t in the business of naturopathy, or massage, or chiropractic or acupuncture or nutrition. We’re in the business of private health care. People are paying out-of pocket for what we do, and when people people pay out-of-pocket for things, there’s always a reason.

Sometimes the reason is that what you offer actually works.

But I think more often the reason is that you offer great service. Because it shows you actually care.

‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize
how close they were to success when they gave up.’
— Thomas Alva Edison

Our next book is in the works.

Like The Practitioner’s Journey, part of the writing process is looking for patterns. I’ve been interviewing successful practitioners for the past few months, digging into what distinguishes the practitioners who make it from those who don’t. The traits of those who love what they do. The decisions of those who earn a great living, versus those who vanish. The behaviors of those who thrive instead of burning out.

There’s one consistent message emerging from these conversations: Practice success stories are stories of persistence. They’re tales of not giving up. Of embracing failure as a means of moving forward, not back.

That doesn’t mean that giving up is always the wrong choice. But it does mean that reaching success is going to require finding the thing you won’t quit.

Hi All,

In related news, I’m opening up more speaking dates for 2012. If you’re looking for an engaging speaker at your conference, convention, or classroom, you can learn more here. Thanks in advance for spreading the word to your schools, instructors and association leaders!   – Dan

A reader recently asked me:

What is the best way to arrange speaking arrangements or workshops, etc. and where is the best place to do them? I’m starting a practice and haven’t done any of this yet. Any insight would be much appreciated.

This is definitely not the first time I’ve had this question–there seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding the idea of speaking to groups.

There are really two ideas here, though. The first is how to actually find the opportunities. The second is how to turn those opportunities into paying clients. You can tackle both of those with these four steps.

Step 1. Prepare…But Just a Little

Don’t fall for the trap of preparing a talk before you have anyone to talk to. This is most certainly a ready, fire, aim type scenario.

“But wait,” you say. “Before I go looking, don’t I need to prepare my keynote, and shoot some video of me speaking, and create some PowerPoints, and do some research, and find some funny cartoons on the internet?”

No. Don’t do a SINGLE BIT OF WORK on any type of presentation until someone actually wants you to present. The closest you need to come at this point is to ponder a list of topics you might like to speak on – stress reduction, fertility, improving your golf game, boosting energy, treating IBS. Whatever fits your game and floats your boat, with the knowledge that you might well speak on something else if someone asks.

The key: These topics aren’t about what you DO. You’re not going to speak about massage per se – you’re going to speak about stress relief. It’s not about acupuncture, it’s about how you can remove years from someone’s appearance using acupuncture. It’s about your potential audience’s problem first, you second.

Step 2. Find Speaking Opportunities

It turns out there’s a special technique to arranging speaking opportunities. It’s very advanced, and highly secretive:

You have to tell people you want to speak.

Really. There are speaking gigs waiting to be found, and there are ones waiting to be created, but they all come out of the same basic idea–you need to put it out there in the world that you want to speak. (In fact, this applies to most things. Tell people what it is you’re looking for, and you’ll be surprised at how few people you need to tell to find help.)

But…who to tell? Here are a few ideas from our experience:

• Service Groups. Many non-profits and service groups, like Rotary, have a steady stream of speakers for their meetings. Your local clubs aren’t hard to find.
• Special Interest Health Groups. There are support groups for everything from diabetes to cancer and MS.
• Schools. You can often land a gig speaking to teachers on professional development days. (And in our world, they have great benefit plans.)
• Local Business. Corporations often offer learning opportunities for staff. Particularly if they think it’ll reduce sick days and increase productivity.
• Grocery Stores & Restaurants. Our local grocery store has a community kitchen space for lectures and cooking classes. All you have to do is make up a topic and submit it.
• Health Food Stores. Health food and supplement stores would love it if you could speak to a group in their space who might then buy a bunch of product.
• Partners. Why not team up with a complementary practitioner or business (like the health food store above?). You can both spread the word twice as far, and tap into each other’s client base. How does it work? You call up a practitioner and say, “Hey. Do you want to do a public talk together? Let’s get together and discuss.” Then the details have a magical way of working out. It’s just the call that needs to happen.
• Existing Clients. Don’t forget them. They might not need you to speak, but they almost certainly know someone who does. Email them all. Put a sign at the front desk.
• The Rest of Your Local Area. Put a page on your website that says you’re available for local speaking engagements. Post it on Facebook. Tweet.

Sidebar: The Big Secret to Having the Guts to Book Speaking Gigs

Here’s what’s important for you to remember: you don’t need guts or sales skills. You’re doing a favor for most of these places by offering your services. You’re helping them out–I promise. Many service clubs have mandates to bring in speakers, and the poor sucker saddled with the job is always on the lookout for someone. Many workplaces like to offer lunch-bag learning options. Many health support groups are desperate for someone to speak to their members.

You don’t need to feel like you’re asking for a handout. You aren’t. You’re offering a valuable service.

Step 3: Speak. (And One More Thing That’s More Important)

Do your thing. And do it as well as you can. Don’t read slides to people. You can use slides, but remember that most people in attendance already know how to read. The goal of speaking is not to present PowerPoint slides. For a better set of tips than I could ever create, check out Seth’s post.

Here’s the important part, though: your job is to somehow get permission to contact the people you speak to. Not everyone–sometimes not anyone–is going to become a client right away. You need to capture their contact information–likely an email address–so you can continue to speak to them. Here are a few suggestions:

• Offer a takeaway. When we’ve done cooking classes, we’ve sometimes given the recipes out to people. But other time’s we’ve passed around an email signup sheet so we can send the recipes after. That’s smarter.
• Offer a prize. A door prize or draw is often enough to get people to offer an email address.
• Offer a free consult/service. We do free 15-minute “meet the doctor” visits. You can do what works for you, but if you ask for email addresses so you can contact people to give them their free service, you’ll usually get a decent response.
• Offer your slides/handouts. If you’ve got useful content–which I’m sure you do–then offer to email it out, rather than printing it on dead trees.
• Just ask people to sign up. Just pass around a sheet of paper and a pen and just ask people to sign up. They will.
• Give people your blog/Facebook Page/Twitter name/ etc. At the very least, make sure you tell people how they can hear more from you.

The key here to just do it. You only need a piece of blank paper and a pen. Write “email address” at the top and pass it around. It’s that simple.

Step 4: Follow Up

• Contact participants. Contact everyone within 24 hours. Thank them for coming. Fulfill whatever you offered, and ask them to call if you can help in any way. Suggest they take some action – call, like you on Facebook, subscribe to your blog, etc.
• Contact the host. Thank them, too. And…here’s the important part. Ask if they’d be willing to write you a one-sentence testimonial. You can even offer to write it for them. I find that hosts tend to thank you right back, and offer positive comments. If they do, just ask if you can use their kind remarks on your website. That’s it!

Tips:

• If your clinic/office space works, consider offering some public talks in your space. It gets people in the door. Beyond that, try your local library for space, or just ask three people. Someone will know where to find something cheap/free.
• Don’t make this bigger than it is. Just tell people you want to speak to them, and then speak to them. If you’re nervous, then good. You’re supposed to be. The only people who aren’t at least a little nervous are narcissists and people with a lot of experience. You likely aren’t either.
• If you’re really nervous. Or you think of yourself as a practice introvert, then you have a choice. You can decide that’s just how it is, and market your practice in other ways – you don’t have to speak. Or you can decide that speaking is a skill like anything else and get on with learning it. Including maybe screwing it up a couple of times just to speed up the learning.
• You might also consider getting someone else to do the speaking. We brought in a guest speaker this year who spoke to a full house on a topic relevant to our clinic. It took some work to fill a whole theater, but we didn’t have to do the lecture.
• Focus on illness, not wellness. You’ll get more interest in a talk focused on problems, then one focused on “optimal health”.

Tara just returned from a great seminar in Arizona. Awesome trip, great lectures, helpful stuff. And, Arizona versus a cold, rainy October weekend in Ontario? No contest.

Part of a great CE experience, though, is not feeling guilty the whole time for investing in yourself. If you’re like many practitioners, you may stress over whether you can justify the cost of travel, seminar fees, and time away from work.

For this seminar, Tara paid for the entire trip–flight, hotel, course, etc.–with ten minutes of work using the strategies below. Here’s how you can do the same.

STEP 1: Choose Wisely

It’s hard to leverage CE if you don’t pick the right stuff. I’m all in favor of learning for the sake of learning. But if you want to translate your continuing education into dollars, you need to be able to answer the following questions:

• Is this a topic, technique or tool that I will actually use?
• Will it appeal to my existing practice clientele?
• Will it bring new clients to my practice that I might not have found otherwise?
• How will I get the word out to clients, both new and prospective?
• How many NEW visits/treatments/appointments do I need to generate to pay for the cost of the CE?
• How long will that take?
• Can I start immediately?

There are many CE opportunities out there, and we’ve found that these questions are very helpful in narrowing the field down to what will pay for itself many times over.

STEP 2: Take Smart Notes

Stop being a human photocopier. No, really.

Your job is not to write down everything the presenter says – most of the time they give you the notes or slides anyway. Your job is to capture two things during your lecture or workshop:

1. Insights that will allow you to provide better care.
2. The actual names of real honest-to-goodness clients in your practice that you can help with your new knowledge.

You know what I mean. Stop writing down stuff you’ll never look at. Write down the names of real people. Jot down real action items that you can do when you get home to start growing your practice. And just listen.

STEP 3: Block Off Extra Time

Yes it’s expensive to go to seminars and conventions. Yes it’s expensive to take time away from the office. And so the temptation is to leap into work the moment you get back to make up for lost time and money.

Don’t. You need to create some time to leverage this new learning (see below) so that it will continue to pay for itself every day. Create some time when you first get back so you can do the most important part of learning: putting it to use. The first day or two after your workshop or retreat are critical in terms of recouping your investment. It’s worth the time. A full day should give you more than enough time. A half-day is probably sufficient to get a lot done.

STEP 4: Leverage Your New Knowledge

• Strike while the iron is hot. If you’re flying to a seminar, then work on the plane. Once you return to the reality of practice, the odds of leveraging your new knowledge decrease with each passing day. Get it done soon, or it’s not going to happen.
• Don’t try to do everything. If you’ve learned 150 new tips and techniques, or 75 new conditions you can treat, don’t try to tackle them all. Pick a handful with the biggest impact, and focus on those.
• Get the word out. Post to your blog. Send out a newsletter. Update your website. Post to Facebook. Tweet. Call or email the clients who’s names you jotted down. If you have an established practice, then your existing client base is the low hanging fruit. Let them know what you have to offer!

That last point is an instant cash generator. After this course, Tara gave the front desk a short list of a few existing patients whose names she had noted during the seminar. A few phone calls later, those people had booked appointments, and were delighted that Tara had thought to go the extra mile and bring something new to their case. And the CE was paid for.

Just the one strategy of jotting down patient names and calling them after the seminar paid for the entire trip. That’s ten minutes of work. And that’s just the beginning.

CE is fun. But it’s even more fun when you feel like you’re getting paid to do it!

Practitioner’s Journey workshop in Hawaii, anyone?