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

The Short Version of this Post: We Need Your Help

We’ve written a free resource for schools to help students get started sooner on the path to practice success. It’s an ebook called The Gift: 7 Practice Success Ideas for Students and Educators. We’d like to ask you to give it a read and share it with as many students, colleagues and educators as you can.

I’m pretty excited about it, and would love it if you grabbed yourself a copy. It’s a very quick, very accessible read. Just a few pages. No email signups, or any other barriers. Just grab it and read, and then share it in whatever way suits you best (see the ideas below).

The Long Version: We Need to Start Practice Success Sooner

Our philosophy for doing this over the years is pretty simple: strong practices make strong professions.

The more successful practitioners are, the more people they reach. They’re able to build stronger associations and tribes, which gives them more research, better legislation, and broader reach. Then health care gets better. And the cycle continues.

One of the challenges, though, is that the journey to business success needs to start earlier – ideally, more intensively during school.

The Practitioner’s Journey is now being used in practice management classes in many schools across the US and Canada. It’s given us the opportunity to speak to educators in massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, naturopathy and more about what students need to be more successful when they graduate.

One common challenge we hear is that it’s difficult to engage students in the idea of being in business while they’re still in school. Students have a lot on their plate, and they don’t want to think about “all that business stuff” until they start practice. Our goal is to change that. Just a little bit.

The Gift: 7 Practice Success Ideas for Students and Educators is a free ebook that aspires to engage students a little sooner in the idea that they’re going to have to run a business, and that there’s a silver lining to that idea that they may not have considered. It’s short and very easy to read, and it’s meant to be shared freely.

How You Can Help

• Read it yourself. It’s short, easy to read and you might find something of value even if you’re not a student. In fact, I’m certain you will.
• Pass the book along to a student.
• Share it with your alma mater, or any colleagues who are teachers in the CAM & Integrative health professions. Or anyone else. There’s something in this book for all practitioners, I think.
• Like this post. Tweet it. Share on Facebook. Blog it. Link to it. Pass it on to your colleagues and ask them to do the same.
• Don’t stop helping students. Yes, it’s distracting to have them in your practice, to take their calls, to answer their email. But they need the help. Just like you probably needed it once.

You can find the book here. Enjoy. Let us know what you think, and thank you in advance for your support. It may seem like a small thing to share a simple link, but small is how all the good stuff starts.

-Dan & Tara

Some time ago we listed 7 books we thought every practitioner should read. Of course, we read a lot of books, so we’ve discovered a lot of great new ones since then.

Here are five more (well, really six if you count the pair) that have made a difference for us. None are specific to being in practice, but all can help. Happy reading! – Dan

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s new book is his best. It’s also his first, I think, that isn’t just for entrepreneurs and marketers.

Linchpin is about being extraordinary – about taking risks, and becoming indispensable. Like much of Seth’s work, it’s almost a collection of micro-essays around a theme, but that theme is a powerful one.

If you’re feeling like you haven’t found your groove as a practitioner, or you know what your groove is but you’re afraid to follow it, try this one out.

Getting Things Done by David Allen

David Allen has become the guru of effectiveness over the past few years. His book, and system, called “GTD” for short by his cult following, is remarkably effective. Almost everyone I know who’s embraced the system has tweaked it to fit their needs, but they usually start with David’s book.

It’s been particularly well-embraced by the technical crowd, which means that there are a host of software products to support it, but it can be easily done with good old-fashioned pencil and paper.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed in practice, are struggling to remember all that you need to do, and just can’t seem to get your to-do list under control, Getting Things Done is the book for you.

Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba

Probably my favorite book about customer service.The authors use case studies to lay out a 6-part system for truly delighting your clients. I listened to this one in audio while driving, and found myself constantly thinking of things to bring back to the practice.

As a practitioner, you don’t get to choose whether you’re in the service business – you are. So why not do a great job of it? Creating Customer Evangelists will definitely help.

Go-Givers Sell More by John David Mann and Bob Burg

I’ve mentioned The Go-Giver before. Written by our friends John Mann and Bob Burg, this one’s been selling like hotcakes for a number of years. The follow-up, though, Go-Givers Sell More, is perhaps the best book I’ve seen for helping practitioners embrace the idea that they need to “sell”, and one we strongly recommended at last year’s ND Success weekend.

If you feel squishy about marketing, sales, networking and other icky parts of being in practice, you need both books. The first is the parable, the second draws on the principles of the first to apply it to business growth in a way that I think can resonate with practitioners.

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

This classic is a real eye-opener. Stanley and Danko discovered that the average millionaire doesn’t fit the stereotype of fast cars and big houses. It’s been around for a while, but is still relevant, and has a whopping 880 reviews on Amazon, the vast majority of which are positive.

The best part for practitioners? Understanding that that your financial and life habits outside of practice are critical if you’re interested in wealth accumulation. The ideas in The Millionaire Next Door are worth paying attention to.

Many moons ago we set out to write a book. One that would help all CAM practitioners, from acupuncturists and chiropractors to massage therapists and energy workers, get what they really want from their practices. A book that would help struggling practitioners get unstuck, find balance, and make a decent living.

Today I get to say that book is here.

The Practitioner’s Journey hits the shelves today. You can find the paperback on Amazon, download the eBook version right now, or order it at your local bookseller (ISBN 978-0973978247).

If you’d like a taste first, there’s an excerpt here. (There’s also a deal on the combined eBook editions of Escape 101 and The Practitioner’s Journey at the end of this post.)

The Path to Success

The Practitioner’s Journey is a unique blend of story, business insight, and practical strategies. It’s based on our experiences in part, but mainly on those of the untold number of practitioners that we’ve interviewed, visited and coached over the past half-decade.

During the research for the book, we realized one thing early on: regardless of our profession in health care, we’re all facing the same challenges. Four of them, in fact. This book is about overcoming those challenges and finding your way to that elusive place called Success.

Not only do the challenges in practice share common threads, but we also saw over and over again that one of the trickiest parts of creating the practice you want isn’t the things you have to do. It’s how you think about what you have to do. The journey we all make as practitioners, it turns out, is just as much an inner one as it is an outer one of clients and clinics and money and treatments. Sometimes it’s not knowing what to do. It’s knowing what to do next.

If you’re struggling in practice, or feeling like things aren’t quite where they should be yet, this book will help. Among many things, you’ll learn how to:

• Attract new clients without feeling sleazy or uncomfortable, or spending a fortune
• Build a practice that needs far fewer clients in order to thrive
• Protect yourself from economic changes and competition
• Find and maintain life balance for your entire career
• Build a long-term future as practitioner by transitioning from practice to business

The book is filled with practical, specific strategies for overcoming the challenges of private practice, and finding your unique place in the CAM universe. Interestingly, it’s also the same framework we’ve used to do our strategic planning for that past three years. It’s a way of thinking about practice that makes it easier to plan, and less complex and overwhelming to make the steady forward progress you need to find your way to that elusive place we call Success.

As part of the launch, we’re offering Escape 101 AND The Practitioner’s Journey in ebook for $19.95 (the ebook editions are $14.95 separately.) If you’re more of a print person, the paperback is here on Amazon.

Enjoy the book, and thanks for being part of our journey!

-Dan & Tara

Order The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Success for Holistic, Alternative and Integrative Health Professionals

Sometimes, clients just appear on your mental radar. They pop into your mind out of the blue, and you think, “Gee. I wonder what happened to so-and-so?” They might have been in active treatment, but have since dropped off, or recovered from a condition and haven’t been back since.

Whatever the reason, it happens, and we’ve often wondered if we should be doing something at those times. Recently, instead of just continuing to wonder, we decided to try an experiment.

We have a dry erase board in the staff room, and lately we asked the team to simply write down clients when they think of them out of the blue. Pretty simple stuff, really – just write their names on a board.

For a while we wondered about the best way to connect with them, though. Call? Write? Email? We’d been using personal letters to reengage old clients, but the truth was we wanted to connect with those people. After all, we really did want to know what was happening with them.

In the end, we decided to experiment with email. Tara wrote six personal emails to clients who had appeared on our “mental radars” in some way. The result was incredible: people loved it. All six responded quite quickly, and at least two have booked to come back in. Just like that. Minimal time investment, zero cost.

Why did it work so well? I think part of it was the medium – email’s less invasive, and more convenient for starting a dialogue. Letters aren’t great for instant dialogue, and it’s often hard to get people on the phone at a time that’s convenient for everyone. More important, though,  I think it was because these were in no way “salesy” emails. They were genuine inquiries: we were thinking of you and wondering how you were. The decision to reengage with the practice was entirely their idea.

The lesson? If someone’s on your mind, then maybe it’s time to be on theirs, too.

Update 2: The book’s here! You can find The Practitioner’s Journey here, and learn more here. Enjoy!

Update: The Practitioner’s Journey is off to the presses! We’re really excited about this book. It’s the end of a long stretch of writing and rewriting, but best of all, it’s going to change the way that many practitioners think about growing their practices. More details to follow as the book hits the shelves, of course, but in the meantime, we’ll be moving AHP to a new online home. With any luck, that’ll be a seamless process, but if things get dark and strange in here for a while, you’ll know why!

When we started this blog (four years ago today!) we were also working on a book. I thought it would be my next book, but then along came Escape 101. And then The Secret Language of Money, a collaboration that included our good friend and Go-Giver co-author John David Mann. And, of course, along the way we grew the clinic a bunch, too, which was an adventure all on its own.

I’m happy to say now, however, that our guide to success in practice, The Practitioner’s Journey, is on its way. Until it hits the stands, though, I’d like to introduce you to someone else’s book. Not only is it available now, it has the advantage of also being free.

There are a lot of free ebooks out there, but Practice Building 101 by Brooke Thomas is great because it’s great, not because it’s free. You don’t need to sign up to get it – it’s just there for the taking. You’ll find it a super-practical guide to growing your practice, particularly if you think you should be doing more online, but aren’t sure what the heck that means, or where to even think about starting.

It’s full of helpful, easy to digest ideas and resources, and Brooke has a great track record in growing her own practices (three in three different states, if I recall correctly!) – she knows what she’s talking about.

Brooke also has a great course called Practice Abundance that also happens to be pay-what-you can. You can find all the details here: http://practiceabundancecourse.com.

Happy Reading, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

-Dan

Practice Building 101

Hi Everyone,

Summer’s in full swing in our part of the world, and we’re heading out for our annual 2-week hiatus. We’ll be off the grid in solar-powered relaxation mode (right here, to be specific).

A few tidbits before we head out:

Escape 101 is now available in Audio

We’re excited about this one. Escape 101 is a how-to guide for sabbaticals that we wrote during our last escape where we did volunteer health care and community development work in rural Paraguay, SA.

Here’s an excerpt from the Escape 101 post on the new audibook version:

The greatest challenge with a book about recapturing your time is that in order to read it you need to make…well, time. The result of this vicious little circle is that the people who need Escape 101 the most are often the ones who have the most trouble making the time to read it.

The solution? Enter Escape 101, the audiobook. We’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the audio version for a few months. Now you can drive, jog, cycle, walk or otherwise listen your way to planning your sabbatical or career break. For the crazy busy, the audio lovers, or for those who just aren’t big readers, this is a great way to experience the book.

The audiobook is published by Gildan Media, who brought such greats as The Attractor Factor, Blue Ocean Strategy and The Go-Giver to audio, and it’s read by the wonderfully talented Erik Synnestvedt, the voice behind such classics as Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and Timothy Butler’s Getting Unstuck. We’re thrilled to be in such good company.

You can download the audiobook directly via Audible or iTunes. Enjoy!

TCM Directory Summer Sale

Elie at the TCM Directory let me know they’re having a summer sale on practitioner listings. Using the coupon code “TCM2008″, you can get 85% off. That’s $11 instead of $74!

The TCM Directory is a resource for all things TCM-related. You can learn more at the website.

Have a great August, everyone. We’ll have a case study up for you in our absence next week, then we’ll be back with some great new practice growth content for September and onward!

-Dan & Tara

I credit much of our good fortune in practice (and other things) thus far to a voracious appetite for learning, especially via books.

Summer’s here for our part of the planet, and Tara and I both tend to increase our book consumption a little more than usual. Here are a few of the books that I think have had the most influence on our practice evolution so far – we thought you might enjoy them, too.

The Diamond Cutter
I love, love, LOVE this book. Geshe Michael Roach, a Westerner who became an ordained Buddhist Monk, weaves together spiritual business concepts, an ancient Buddhist text, and a cool story about the diamond industry. The best quote (and also how we began The Practitioner’s Journey):

“Never accept the idea that, because you are in business, you don’t have the opportunity or time or personal qualities which a true spiritual life demands, or that maintaining a deep inner life is somehow contradictory with leading a business career.

The wisdom of The Diamond Cutter says that the very people who are attracted to business are exactly the same ones who have the inner strength to grasp and carry out the deeper practices of the spirit.”

The E-Myth Revisited

Michael Gerber’s E-Myth should be required reading for anyone running a small business. The idea that the technical work of being a practitioner needs to be seen separately from the entrepreneurial role of running the business of your practice is something we should all internalize.

The big message? You need to work on your business, not just in it. Gerber shows you how, in an easily digestible semi-parable format.

Blue Ocean Strategy

This bestseller is a tiny bit more academic than some of these others, but it’s been hugely influential in how our business has evolved.

The authors’ premise – that “red oceans” are crowded, competitive marketplaces, while “blue oceans” are untapped market space – is directly relevant to CAM practices. There are some great case studies in this one, but I think it’s worth getting in print as opposed to audiobook for the “strategy canvas” diagrams.

Blue Ocean Strategy will change the way you look at competition and your marketplace.

Book Yourself Solid

Of all the books on this list, Michael Port’s is probably the one that’s closest to a “How to Grow Your Practice” book. It’s generalized to anyone in a service business, but most of the concepts in the book are directly applicable to alternative medical practice.

It’s well-structured, which gives you a leg up in applying what he has to say after you’re done reading, and it’s a seriously worthwhile read for anyone who feels a bit uncertain in the marketing area.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

What’s a personal finance book doing in this list? Despite its simplicity, I think the concepts in this book should be homework for every practitioner. We’ve seen far too many practitioners struggling in practice because their personal finances are in such rough shape.

If you’ve ever had the idea that “once my practice is successful, then I’ll get my personal finances in order,” then this is for you. Sometimes, things work the opposite of how you might expect…

The 4-Hour Workweek

I first read this book just as we were returning from our last sabbatical in Paraguay, SA, and finishing up the manuscript for Escape 101.

If you’ve ever had work-life balance issues, this is one you need to read. There’s a fair bit dedicated to the internet and outsourcing, but the real value of The 4-Hour Workweek is in challenging what you’ve been raised to believe about how you work, live, earn and spend.

Made to Stick

I loved this book, and mentioned it to Burton Kent, author of Never Market Again. Naturally, he’d already read it, and said it’s his second favorite marketing book of all time next to Influence. It is, indeed, a great read.

This is the most straightforward and practical book I’ve read on how to take an idea and present it in a way that people can grasp. Made to Stick is super-accessible, fun to read, and will teach you exactly how to deliver a message that’s powerful and “sticky”. A must-read marketing book.

I’ve intentionally filled this list with books that aren’t specific to alternative medical businesses, but the core concepts in these books can be applied to almost any practice. Have you got a favorite book (in any category) that’s helped you? Let us know in the comments!

In support of our post last week on giving as the key to professional networking and referrals come two things. The first is scientific research revealing a link between charity and wealth. The second is a fantastic new book, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
.

The Go-Giver is the story of Joe, an ambitious young man who yearns for success. Joe’s trouble, however, is that the harder he works, the further away his goals seem. That all changes when Joe meets an enigmatic man named Pindar who teaches him that changing his focus from getting to giving—putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives —ultimately leads to unexpected returns.

I saw a many parallels with the CAM professions when I read this book. The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, which Joe discovers in his journey (I’ll keep that journey a secret for now), seem so relevant to practice growth that I think this book could have been written with alternative medicine in mind.

For anyone in the healing professions, I can whole-heartedly recommend this one. The parable format makes it an easy, enjoyable read, and the content is pure gold. Tara and I both loved it. This one’s worth it—for your practice and your personal life.

You can pick up a copy of the The Go-Giver here.

Many of you know that Tara and I spend last winter doing volunteer health care and economic development work in Paraguay, SA. It really was an incredible experience – the positive impact on our health and family was remarkable.

The real bonus benefit was that our practice was profitable while we were away, and ran like clockwork. The outlook since we’ve returned has been even rosier: the practice is making more than it would have had we never left, we’re working less, and patients are getting better results. In short, taking time away = more health and more wealth. Counterintuitive? Perhaps, but true nonetheless.

It wasn’t our first sabbatical, nor will it be our last, but this was the final step in a long path toward our new book Escape 101: The Four Secrets to Taking a Sabbatical or Career Break Without Losing Your Money or Your Mind

If you’ve wanted to take extended time away from your practice for any reason, this book will be a huge help. It’s a primer for successfully escaping the rat race without giving up the hard-earned progress in your job or business.

I think the world would be a better place if more of us were able to take the break we need. If you know someone who’s been dreaming of getting away, this might be just the nudge they need. The book has a clear road map for dealing with careers, businesses, kids and finances, and it focuses specifically on making it simple to build up the courage and commitment to live your life deliberately.

You can buy the book via Amazon, or visit the Escape 101 website for more info.