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?

Related posts:

1. 4 Ways to Start Next Year Right
2. A Simple Way to Offer Incredible Client Service This Year
3. How To Use a Waiting List in Your Practice – No Matter How Busy You Are

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!

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Keep Chatty Clients on Time
2. How To Earn $80K in Your First Year of Practice
3. Help for Your Practice 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

Related posts:

1. 4 Ways to Start Next Year Right
2. The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Practice Success
3. 3 Ways to Simplify Your Practice Marketing

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”.

Related posts:

1. Grow Your Practice with Google Places
2. How to Create Your Practice Marketing Plan
3. Quick Builders: How The Fastest Grow Their Practices (Part 1)

Reader J. writes:

“…how do I revive my practice after leaving it for a 6-month maternity leave? I took on a locum and I went from seeing 30+patients a week to her seeing a mere 10 patients per week at best.

I know many of my patients wanted to wait until I got back, but I also know that many will have dropped off the planet unless I am proactive about generating new business and reviving my relationship with past clients.”

Whether it’s a maternity leave, a sabbatical, some down time, a return to school, or any other reason, a long absence has the potential to wreak havoc on your practice. We’ve been there. Here’s what we did, starting with the year leading up to our sabbatical.

I: Before You Go

Absences are a bit like prevention – you get the best results from starting early. You might not always have the luxury of planning in advance, but if you can, it’ll pay off.

a) Reframe Success:
A big turning point for us in the sabbatical planning process was to reframe what we were expecting from the practice. We started out this way:

How do we lose as little money as possible while we’re gone?

And one day we reframed the question this way:

How can the practice make a profit while we’re gone?

That may seem like just semantics, but it changed the way we looked at things. And that, it turn, changed what we did before we left. That simple shift led to adding new people and services that enable the practice to be profitable during a 5-month hiatus.

b) Diversify
Those new services were really about diversifying – about ensuring that less of the practice revenue was coming from one person’s efforts. If you have some lead time before your absence, now’s the time to start planning. What can you add to your practice? New people? New products? New services? Focus on things that can deliver revenue beyond what a locum can generate by working with your clients.

c) Get More Help
If you’ve been running a one-person show, it may seem counter-intuitive to hire office support when know you’re leaving. But it’s worth considering. If you feel like you don’t have time to expand your practice before you leave, perhaps you need more admin help – paying a receptionist part-time, for example, might free up the time and head space you need to diversify, or spend more time marketing your practice. Plus when it comes time to leave, you’ll have someone ready to fill your shoes on the administrative side.

II: While You’re Gone

a) Stay in Touch
It’s just not that hard to stay in touch with your client base any more. If you haven’t already, now is the time to get that free MailChimp account and get your email newsletter started.

If you’re already using email, a blog, social media, or print to keep in touch, keep it going while you’re away. You’d be surprised at how interested your clients may be in what you’re doing. You don’t need to do a lot – just share, encourage, and educate people like always.

b) Don’t Completely Bail Out
You may well be in a place where you want to completely abdicate all responsibility for the practice. That’s fine – sometimes that’s what you need. But understand completely disengaging will come at a cost without some amazing people and processes to fill your shoes. If you do decide to fully leave, just give yourself permission to change your mind. It’s hard to predict how a long absence feels until it’s happening.

III: When You Get Back

When you return, energized and ready to tackle practice again, here are some things to consider.

a) Go One-to-One
Now’s the time to pull patient files, and pay attention when clients pop into your mind. People love being personally contacted for legitimate reasons – our experience is that they particularly like email. Keep up the email newsletter and other mass marketing, sure, but it’s time to start reconnecting personally.

It may help to break it down into small actions. Everyone has time to email one client every morning. If that’s easy, step it up to three or more. Just start building the habit. Do it every single day.

b) Leverage Your Experience
Is there something about your time off that you can bring back to your practice? Your newfound experience with infants? Your expanded education in a new modality? Can you share your experience in another country in the form of a public presentation, or other speaking gigs? It may not apply to every absence, but almost every change in life brings new wisdom – why not share?It’s a great way to create marketing opportunities without really feeling like you’re marketing.

c) Reconnect with referrers
Despite your best efforts to stay in touch, your biggest fans still may not even know you’re back! Get in touch with them – one-by-one, in whatever way seems best. Again – turn it into something small you can do every day.

One Day, This Will Be a Small Deal

Leaving your “baby” seems like a big deal – and it is. But one day you’ll look back at it as less of a big scary deal, and more of an amazing experience that you’ll remember forever. And perhaps one that changes your practice for the better.

While it may be easier said than done, try not panic. Figure out the worst-case financial scenario for your absence. Decide if you can accept it, then get on with building your practice, and enjoying some amazing time away.

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Let Go in Practice
2. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice

It’s amazing to me how many of our practice building efforts involve writing. Blog posts. Website content. Articles for newspapers and magazines. Fliers. Patient forms. Letters. Facebook posts. Email newsletters. The list goes on.

Of course, we like that medium, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture. I see writing as crucial for any practice. From the signs on your walls to the content of your website, your clients are experiencing your practice not just through their interaction with you, but through the written word.

For some, though, the importance doesn’t matter – the empty page is still a source of dread. It’s too big, too hard, too overwhelming. Many a blog, website and newsletter never see the light of day because of that dread.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I want to share with you our basic process for writing short-to-medium length content like a blog post or article. I’ve broken it into multiple steps for simplicity, but the truth is you can do all of these in a very short time. (Total time for this post: Under 40 minutes)

Before we get to the steps, though, two principles to carry along the way:

Aim for Short

Long is too hard, too scary, and too costly. Most of all though, people don’t read long – if anything, it scares them away. We think long because we spent years in school being taught to write a certain number of words instead of just trying to deliver the message. Time to start losing that programming.

If you’re struggling with getting started (or getting finished), help yourself by deciding that you never need to write more than three paragraphs. That’s it. You might write more, but don’t set yourself up for failure at the start.

Eliminate Yourself…at Least at First

One of the easiest mistakes to make is to talk about yourself and what you do when you really should be talking about other people’s problems and how to solve them. Yes, you do nutritional counseling. But there isn’t a client in the world who has a nutritional counseling problem. Nor do any of them have a gluten or lactose intolerance problem. They have digestive pains so severe they can’t work. Or a skin condition so bad they can’t go out in public.

If you struggle with this, try simply refusing to use words like “I”, or “we” or mentioning your tools or modalities in your first draft (more on first drafts below). Focus on the other person’s problem, and only mention what you do in the context of solving it.

Now for the writing. I’ve listed some rough times for this post, just to give you a sense that the process is actually fairly brief.

Step 1. The Outline – Put 1-3 Ideas on The Page (2 Minutes. Plus pondering over breakfast.)

I’m big on outlining. Once the actual writing starts, I’m easily distracted…oooh! shiny!…by other ideas. For this post, I wrote down six phrases to help with the first draft:

• Short
• Not about you
• First draft free-flow
• Wait
• Rewrite
• Help

That’s it: that was the skeleton. It changed a bit, as you can see, but that’s all you need to get started. If you have trouble with a skeleton, try this generic one to start:

• A health complaint and its symptoms
• What causes it
• Solution(s)

Step 2. Write The No-Editing Allowed Draft (20 minutes)

Using your skeleton from above, just write a couple of sentences in each part of your framework. That’s it. If you need more, write it, but don’t be obsessed with quantity. Remember: short is usually better. Just fill in the blanks.

Also, do not edit what you’re writing. Give yourself permission to just free-flow it right from your brain to the page. Fear not: no one is going to see this draft. Get over it.

Step 3.Wait (Optional, 0 minutes)

Ideally, I’ll wait at least overnight after a first draft. I count that as zero time, because there’s no work involved.

What’s going on here is you’re creating a fresh perspective. A new set of eyes. It’s hard to rewrite and edit what you’ve just written. You can’t get a good sense of flow, and you skip over the same errors time and time again without seeing them.

So take a break. You don’t have to, but it’ll make your next step easier, and your final product far better.

Step 4. Rewrite (10 minutes)

With your fresh eyes and a good night’s sleep, take a spin through what you wrote. At this stage, I’m mostly looking for flow – does it make sense? Is there a clear idea? Is it useful?

This is where things start to stitch together. A clunky bunch of sentences starts to tell a story. You can’t write well without rewriting – don’t skip this part.

Step 5. Get Someone Else To Read It (Optional, 0 minutes)

It’s hard to see your own mistakes. Get someone to take a spin through and point out obvious errors and stuff that just doesn’t make sense.

Step 6. Polish (5 minutes)

Do a final tweak based on comments from step 5. Read through, do a spell check.

That’s it! Not counting the optional overnight waiting and your friend’s read through, you should be able to do a short piece in under an hour. If you want to go shorter and faster, you can use steps 1, 2, 4 and 6, and do even briefer post or email newsletter content in just 15 minutes.

The real key parts for moving forward, I think, are the outline and first draft. You need to give yourself permission to just go. Write it down like you’d say it aloud. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or about self-editing. That voice in your head that’s saying, “You suck at writing,” is in everyone’s head at some point. Forget about it. It goes away as you work through the steps, and as you write more.

Writing is, like everything else, a skill. It’s a muscle that grows with exercise, and the stronger it gets, the more power it has. Give yourself a chance to build it up.

Related posts:

1. 5 Free Sources of Writing Inspiration for Your Practice
2. 5 Steps to Dealing With Practice Panic
3. How To Turn Your CE Into Practice Revenue

Note: Apologies if any of you are receiving this twice. Strange things afoot on the site this week. -Dan

With this year closing out and next year looming, we thought we’d share a couple of things. First, a look at our marketing plan for next year, and second, a 4-step process for creating your own.

Part I: Our Marketing Plan for 2011

This isn’t the final state of our plan – more on that in Part II, below, but it’ll give you an idea of what makes our marketing tick.

I’ve chunked these pieces into functional areas because it seemed easier to read that way, but that’s only part of the actual plan – what we do next with this list is the important part.

PRINT MEDIA

• Advertising: In 6 magazines / newspapers. We negotiate the rates for a whole year so that the prices are little cheaper. (Monthly)
• Yellow pages: Our ad still continues to deliver new patients, even though the directory itself seems to be dying a slow death. We’ll continue it for another year. (Once)
• Articles: Health editorials for 3 local publications. We’ll also approach two other publications to see if we can contribute regular health articles. (Monthly)

ONLINE

• Blog posts: We post a short article each week. Sometimes a repost of a print article, which reduces the workload. (Weekly)
• Website optimization: Check Google rankings each month. Tweak content as required. (Monthly)
• Local search: Update / tweak Google Places listing. (Monthly)
• Google Adwords: We run some Google ads, but the results are minimal in our area because there’s not enough search volume. It’s cheap, though, and pretty much on autopilot for now. (Ongoing)
• Facebook: We’re dabbling in social media. Right now our blog posts are submitted automatically to our FB fan page. Still uncertain as to whether this will get more attention this year, although I’m seeing it as increasingly important. (Weekly)

PATIENT OUTREACH

• Email newsletter: Goes out the second week of each month. Usually has a health tip, recipe, book review and a link to our events calendar. (Monthly)
• Print newsletter: Sent out in the spring and fall. This could be the last year for this one. It costs us nearly $1000 each time, while the email newsletter is less than $20. It never fails to bring in far more than it costs, though. (Twice)
• New Patient Bailouts: Each week we contact new patients who missed their first appointment for some reason. It’s a “crack” that a lot of patients fell through last year. Our processes were good for existing patients, but there was a “limbo” where a lot of people ended up if they never made it to their first visit. (Weekly)
• “Patients We’re Thinking About”: We’ve had some really great success with this. When a patient pops into mind. “Hey. I wonder what happened to so-and-so?” we email them to check in. Works far better than our reactivation letters, which we’re dropping this year. (Ongoing)

PROFESSIONAL REFERRALS

• Self Care for Health Care Pros: Monthly. We’ll be offering free yoga classes to anyone in the health care industry, courtesy of the clinic.  We don’t offer yoga, but will pay for a local studio to provide the class. Health care pros of any stripe can drop in for a free morning yoga class. (Monthly to start)
• Referral letters: Print letters to our existing referrers with updates on new services, and which also include 15-minute complimentary visit cards. (Twice – spring/fall)
• Comp card distribution: We drop off 15-minute complimentary visit cards to health care professionals (and related) who currently don’t refer. (Ongoing)
• Lunch meetings: “Doing lunch” with a colleague or new face in town. Far less schmoozy than it sounds – mostly about connecting with friends in health care. (Monthly)

EVENTS, PUBLIC OUTREACH

• Movie Nights: We show a health-related movie at the clinic. Free organic popcorn and tea. (Quarterly)
• After 5: Networking events hosted in different business by our local Chamber of Commerce. Cheese. Crackers. Wine. Schmoozing. (Monthly)
• “Weed Walks”: Educational walks about local medicinal herbs. Hosted by another business, with Tara guiding. (Twice in season)
• Info sessions: In-clinic evening presentations on a local health issue. (Quarterly)
• Speaking Gigs: Presentations to local service clubs, health groups, special interest groups. (Quarterly)
• Cooking Classes: Held at a local grocery store that has a community kitchen space. (Quarterly)
• Health Fairs/Trade Shows: As many as four this year, depending on which communities offer them in our area. (Quarterly)
• Corporate Wellness: We’ll be kicking this off in 2011 with a “lunch and learn” for public school teachers. They fit our demographic well, and have great insurance/benefit coverage. (Ongoing)
• “Big Public Event”: One free public event centered around a health issue. It’ll be in a larger public venue, with speakers, etc. This year will be on either environmental medicine or cancer (or both, given the connection). (Once)

PART II: Creating Your Own Plan

Before you begin: You don’t have to do all these parts at the same time, but it’s helpful if you can – the whole process should take you less than three hours. If that’s too much, do steps 1&2 together, then 3&4 later.

You’ll find it easier, funner, and less stressful to work with someone on this. Any colleague, friend, family member who’s bright, optimistic, and has some marketing sense will do. Another practitioner, regardless of their area of focus, is a great bet. Tara and I do this together, but there have been great ideas that have come from sitting down with other practitioners.

Regardless, doing it alone can suck. Be wary.

1. List Your Ideas (30 minutes)

We start with a big brainstorm, firing out ideas, new and old, and just list them. No critiques at this stage. The goal here is to capture everything you’ve done last year, plus any new ideas that might be circulating.

In 0ur case, new stuff was about 20% of the list at the most. I think we could probably have upped that by getting more creative, but much of our stuff is ongoing, and has been for some time.

2. Identify the Keepers (3o minutes)

You’ll know if you’ve done a good job in the first step if you’re staring at a list of marketing ideas that you’ll never accomplish next year. Now the job is to identify what’s actually going to happen. Here are a couple of criteria for picking from your list.

What Works: What worked for you over the past year? What didn’t? Our reactivation letters, for example, worked okay, but not well enough to keep going. What do you think will work?

What You Like: Marketing you like to do is marketing that tends to actually happen. If you like connecting with people, then make sure that your list has lots of it. If you like online work, then make it part of your plan.If you’re excited about it and it won’t break the bank, then keep it – anything you’re jazzed about is worth a shot.

For each “keeper”, identify how often it will happen. Daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

If you’re having trouble prioritizing the list, use our Low Hanging Fruit process to help you identify what’s going to get you the most return for the least effort.

3. Step Back and Take a Look (30 minutes)

Once you’ve got a list together, stand back and have a look. Is it doable? Sustainable? Enjoyable? Before you lock in (step 4), take a look at the list with an eye for the following:

New things: You can only tackle so much change in a year. If you’re planning on launching a new blog, an email newsletter, a Facebook fan page and a bunch of speaking gigs for the very first time, make sure you’re not biting off more than you can chew. Unless your practice is brand new, you should see a reasonable amount of “old” on the list.

Gaps: It’s important to do marketing you like, but are there any big holes? Are you completely ignoring online marketing, for example, because you don’t like it? If that’s the case, you may want to consider filling that gap by having someone else help with the load. Are you hiding from the world? You might need to start getting out there and connecting with people face-to-face.

Overall balance: A small, sustained effort is better than some big noise for two weeks and then nothing. You can probably do more than you think, but can you really do everything on the list? You might need help, or you might need to cull your list further.

In the past, when Tara was in solo practice, the things that generally got slashed were the public events – speaking gigs, health fairs and networking, etc. Our plan then was to not have more than 1-2 evening events in a month in order to keep family time balanced. Now that we have more help, a lot of that stuff is coming back online.

4. Calendar Everything (60 minutes)

One of the hardest parts of growing a practice is to actually get stuff done. It’s easy to fall into the trap of lofty goal-setting and strategic planning without a plan for doing the actual work.

Everything on your list should end up on a calendar. You can use paper or digital, just make sure it’s a medium you’re comfortable with. If you’re going to write a health article once a month, for example, then pick a consistent day that you can make that happen, and stick it in your calendar 12 times.

Even things that are “ongoing” should get a specific deliverable day.

There may be things that you don’t have dates for yet. We don’t know, for example, when all the local health fairs are yet. Instead, the calendar gets an entry to call our local municipal office and find out.

The End Result

The outcome of all this should be a calendar that you can easily see your marketing efforts month by month. I have a digital version of ours on my computer, but it also will go on a large office calendar where everyone at the clinic can see what’s happening.

Happy growing!

-Dan

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Simplify Your Practice Marketing
2. 4 Questions That Will Help Get Your Marketing Done
3. Tips for a Successful Open House

There are a lot of names for what we do in practice – alternative, holistic, complementary, integrative. But behind the labels, we all have one thing in common: we’re trying to help others. The catch, however, is that in order to find those people who need our help, most of us have to make some effort to market our services.

Sometimes, though, the very thing that makes many practitioners so good at what they do – their ability to connect with and be sensitive to others -  also makes them very, very uncomfortable with the idea of marketing. Behind many of the questions we get from practitioners is a common theme: I’m shy/introverted/timid/reserved. How can I  promote my practice?

To answer that, let’s start with a few key truths about practice marketing for introverts:

Introverts Have an Advantage

So you’re an introvert. You’re inward-looking. You prefer the company of yourself, or a close interaction with one other person. You’re insightful, a good listener. All these things, as it turns out, make you a kick-ass practitioner, too. What no one may have told you, though, is this:

The same things that make you a great practitioner can make you a great marketer, too.

Not only is being an introvert not a flaw, you also have a unique set of advantages, well-suited for health care and health care marketing.

• You Listen Better – One of the greatest complaints about lousy salespeople and marketers is that they don’t listen. You’re telling them you want green, but they keep sticking red in your face over and over. As an introvert, odds are you’re a better listener than your extraverted counterparts. That means you stand a chance of actually hearing what it is your prospective clients want. What’s the biggest sales technique you’ll hear over and over in sales training? Listen to your prospect. It turns out that you’re a natural.

• You Get Others Talking – It may be that you don’t like to be the center of attention, or it may be those great listening skills, but whatever the reason, introverts have a knack for keeping others talking. That gives you a much better chance of hearing about a health concern or a subtle detail that might never come up otherwise. It means you learn far more about prospective clients than anyone else.

Introversion Isn’t a Character Flaw

We live in a culture that tends to value extraversion. Don’t buy in.

If you tend to be energized by time alone, and a little introspective, you’re in good company. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Steven Spielberg? Yep – all introverts. Who says introverts can’t find a little success in business?

And remember, just about everyone feels the way you do at some point. You are neither broken nor alone.

Introversion and Extraversion Aren’t Permanent States

Introversion and extroversion are one continuum. We move around that continuum depending on our environment and experience. While there are genetic components to personality, they are, as with most things, not the whole picture:

Even a broad category such as introversion is like Silly Putty once life gets hold of it: a “genetically shy” child whose parents gently encourage her to get herself into the sandbox and mix it up with other kids is more likely to outgrow her shyness by age 12 than a shy child whose parents take her trait as a given. <source>

Instead of thinking yourself as flawed because you’re nervous about getting out there, think of yourself as inexperienced. We don’t blame kids for not being able to ride a bike, we just support them as they learn. You should cut yourself some of that same slack, and go easy on the labels.

Extraversion Isn’t Bad

For many, the idea of marketing a practice isn’t the fear of the actual act of say, networking, but a fear of becoming an icky extravert. That stems in large part from our stereotypical view of the marketer as the deceitful used-car salesman in the plaid jacket and snakeskin boots.

Just as introversion doesn’t mean “loser,” extraversion doesn’t mean “phony.” You can adopt aspects of extraversion without compromising your integrity or losing your personality.

You’re Already Marketing

Those great client skills of yours? Listening, reflecting, connecting, empathizing, assessing, diagnosing, prescribing and teaching? They’re the hallmarks of exceptional salespeople. The ability to truly connect with another person, understand their problem and provide the perfect solution? That’s all sales and marketing is. You learned it in school, and you’re doing it all the time, but no one ever told you. So I’m telling you right now: you’ve been marketing all along. You just need to get comfortable with the idea of expanding your audience a little.

But How?

Here are a few tips to ease your transition.

1. Start Gradually

You’re not going to change overnight. Commit to some small changes, or one big move per month or quarter. You can find a massive list of marketing ideas here. Pick just one to focus on that’s a small stretch for you. Get it done, and repeat.

2. Don’t Sell. Solve.

If the idea of “selling” is making you feel squishy, that’s good, because selling isn’t what you need to do. Your job in marketing your practice is to connect with others and solve their problems. Your job is not to sell, it’s to solve.

You can never sell anything to anyone. All you can you is create the circumstances for people to sell things to themselves. So think of yourself as connecting, sharing, educating and solving. Not selling.

3. Engage With the World

Clients don’t have to come from information sessions, speaking gigs, media interviews and article writing. They also come from being at the gym, or a mom’s group, or at the hairdresser. They come taking classes, hanging in coffee shops. From art galleries and movie theatres.

The hardest way to find new clients is to never leave your house or office. Just get out there and engage with the world.

4. Use The Buddy System

Despite all this, it can be, beyond a doubt, nerve-wracking for the less-outgoing to…well, go out. If you’re going to engage the world, there’s no rule that says you have to do it alone. Find a buddy, and get out there. Intoverted, extraverted – doesn’t matter. Moral support comes in many shapes and sizes.

5. Focus on One-On-One Interactions

Even though you might teach, or speak to groups, or show up a cocktail parties and open houses, all the good stuff happens one-on-one. Think of crowds as opportunities for a series of monogamous marketing efforts, not a pitch to a pack of rapt listeners. You don’t have to captivate a crowd. Just connect with one person.

6. Don’t Be Distracted By the Easy Stuff

There’s an enormous trend right now toward web-based marketing, especially social media. There’s a good reason for it: it’s a viable way to reach a lot of people.

The pitfall for introverts, however, is that the web is just too easy. It offers the (questionable) promise of riches and practice growth without getting out of your pyjamas, and for those of us who are a little shy, that’s too good to pass up.

So don’t pass it up. You’d be crazy not to use some of this technology to your advantage – just don’t fall into the trap of using it as your only advantage because you’re too scared to do anything else.

In a nutshell, let’s remember the words of Winnie the Pooh, who sums it all up far better than I ever could have:

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Related posts:

1. How to Create Your Practice Marketing Plan
2. 3 Ways to Simplify Your Practice Marketing
3. 4 Questions That Will Help Get Your Marketing Done

Note: Kevin Doherty is one of the first people I stumbled across a few years back when we started this blog. He built a successful acupuncture practice, then went on to become an author and business coach.

He’s a smart guy, which I like, but he’s also walked the talk, building a six-figure income while maintaining a life.

It’s about time we had him sharing his brain here, so I asked him a few questions about finding success in practice…enjoy!  – Dan

1. You’ve worked closely with acupuncturists, but also with a variety of other health care professionals.   How similar are the practice challenges between acupuncture and other CAM professions?

I would say there are many similar challenges that include getting enough exposure and new patients, retaining them effectively, and creating a scalable business model that enables you to have a life outside of your practice.  Every business owner is faced with these challenges.

The difference I see for acupuncturists is that most of them would really prefer to just treat patients and not have to worry at all about marketing.  Chiropractors are much more motivated when it comes to marketing.  They understand the importance of investing in their practice growth through consulting, advertising, and internet marketing.  Acupuncturists are much more resistant to investing in their marketing education.  Because of this, they struggle more than chiropractors and generally make less money.  Acupuncturists often struggle with the whole notion of marketing in general, as it can feel inauthentic to them.  Because of this, they rely heavily on word of mouth and law of attraction principles.

For some, this works.  But for most, they never see the amount of patients they want because they have an aversion to self-promotion.  This is one of the greatest challenges that individual practitioners face, not to mention the profession as a whole.

2. What’s the biggest missed opportunity for most practitioners?

Fully leveraging the power of online technology to grow their practices.  In many markets, consumers are searching for alternative medicine services in the thousands every month with relatively little competition.  It is just crucial to get your practice positioned effectively on the internet.

3. If practitioners were to focus on one single strategy for the next three months, what would you recommend that would have the biggest impact on their practice?

Make sure you have a professional website or blog that has some current web 2.0 features like an opt in form, video, and integration with social media.  Take the necessary steps through search engine optimization, article marketing, and possibly pay per click to get a lot of qualified visitors coming to your website.

4. Many practitioners are in solo practice. Is it possible to make a good living as a solo practitioner and still lead a balanced life, or is adding associates and other staff a step that  practitioners have to make at some point?

This depends on the practitioner.  I, for one, never had a receptionist. Neither did the mentor I trained under.  We were able to see 50-70 patients per week in 3-3.5 days doing this.  This can only be done if you basically eliminate the need for a receptionist.  You have most patients pre-pay and pre-book appointments and you have an effective script in place that lets them know that they should only call your office to reschedule if it is absolutely necessary, as you run a very busy practice.  Basically, you need to be highly organized and efficient in the way you manage your time.  Otherwise, it can get pretty chaotic and exhausting.

Not all practitioners are able or want to see 3-4 patients per hour.  By far the most successful and lucrative practices are the ones that do see at least this many an hour.

I think it is possible to make a solid 6 figure income as a solo practitioner and have a life outside of the practice, but the truth is that this is unfortunately pretty rare.  You have to be pretty developed both personally and professionally to handle a high patient volume and set healthy boundaries so you don’t take it home with you or just end up pretty much living at your office.  Your marketing needs to be mostly automated through effective word of mouth and internet promotion.  Your practice management systems have to be tight and consistent.  These are things most of us don’t learn in school, which is why I decided to step up as a practice building coach.

Note: I think Kevin’s the real deal – he’s a sincere guy, helping a lot of practitioners reach more people and build a practice that supports their life.

If you need coaching, inspiration or help with any area of your practice (or you find all this internet talk confusing as hell ) you’ll find it well worth your time to check out his stuff. – Dan

Related posts:

1. The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Practice Success

We had our annual Celebration of Health at the clinic a few weeks ago. It’s become a tradition for us – we invite patients and the general public, and spend an evening at the clinic enjoying some great food and drinks, and generally enjoying ourselves.

It was a great success, but this year I was trying to pay particular attention to why. Here are a few of our thoughts, but we’d love some further tips. Anyone have any great ideas? Leave them in the comments!

Have a Designated Greeter

This year I spent most of my time serving drinks, and from my vantage point I had a clear view of the main entrance for most of the night. The one thing I noticed more than anything else was how uncertain new people looked when they came in. Fortunately, there were enough of us around that someone was usually able to welcome them give them a tour or point them in the direction of food, drinks, samples, etc., but in hindsight, I think having a “greeter” would have been helpful.

The greeter doesn’t need any special clinical knowledge – it can be a friend or family member. They just have to make people feel like they’ve come to the right spot for the right reason. Next year, we’ll have someone assigned to the front door the whole time.

Spread The Word Widely

People show up from an amazingly diverse range of places. We promoted the event:

• On our website
• To our patient mailing list
• In posters in local stores and shops
• On clinic signage
• In postcards left with local practitioners and other vendors
• In newspaper ads and events calendars
• In various local online calendars and community sites

Many of these sources were free, and they all helped spread the world. It turned out that just about everything connected with someone. As we’ve discovered with new client marketing, you never quite know where the people are going to come from.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Invitation

We sent letters to all our patients to let them know about the open house, and it was a pleasant surprise for me just how many clients seemed to truly appreciate simply being invited. It was a great reminder of how much people long to feel special, or a part of something.  The letter included other services and events, but the lead item was an invite them to the event, and people responded, many with messages of gratitude. It made the whole process of marketing the open house quite enjoyable.

Apparently, Recipes are Big

We had advertised that we’d be sharing recipes for unique and healthy foods, and there were people who came for that reason only. Who knew? Apparently Tara did, which gives you some insight into who does most of the cooking at our place. At any rate, recipes=more people!

Free Stuff Is A Big Draw (and Easy to Get!)

I think this was our biggest year for freebies. Our supplement suppliers and local retailers really came through for us, and it was surprisingly easy. We brainstormed a few ideas in advance, made a list, and simply asked. The people at the open house loved it, and the suppliers were super-keen and helpful. It also had the added bonus of moving people through the clinic. By placing freebies throughout the office, people tended to explore a little more, and become more familiar and comfortable with the space.

Partner

Back when the clinic was a lot smaller, we arranged to have our open house on the same night as the massage therapists down the hall. We were both relatively new in practice, but by holding events on the same night, we were able to create a much busier (and more enjoyable) event for both of us.

This year, we had a local personal trainer and raw food expert spend the evening with us. She blended up some amazing organic green smoothies, and actually turned out to be the biggest hit of the evening. She was a hugely successful addition for us, and was able to promote her own services at the same time. A great collaboration.

Have a Way to Stay in Touch

A good open house can bring a lot of new faces in the door, and it’s nice to be able to get in touch with people after the event is over. Our approach was pretty simple: a door prize that people entered by writing their name and email address on a ballot.

The next day, I simply emailed everyone a short message thanking them for attending, and included a link to the recipes from the night before on our website. The key? Respect their email address, and offer something of use. Having a great email newsletter solution makes things a heck of a lot easier, too.

Anyone else have any practical tips for making the most of an open house or other event in your practice? Let’s hear your ideas!

Related posts:

1. 5 Essential Presentation Tips for Wellness Practitioners
2. No One Needs More Information
3. How to Grow Your Practice With Public Speaking