Every once and a while I have an epiphany that I’ve had maaaaany times before, and I realize that maybe (just maybe) I should listen to it this time.So what was it? “Do the stuff you’re good at and hire others for the stuff that they’re good at, so that you don’t waste your time on learning curves that you don’t care about.”

It sounds so simple, no big deal right? Well underlying that epiphany was the more crucial, “The little part of your brain that is terrified of change- the lizard brain- will shape shift in any way it needs to in order to stop all progress and make you think you are sane for doing so.”

Let me back up a little bit. On January 14th to 15th I was in New York City to go to a Triiibes event (a two day meet up of those of us who are on Seth Godin’s social network, Triiibes), and then to grab dinner with Seth himself and the rest of the Triiibe (!), and go to his first talk about his new book, Linchpin. I read Linchpin on the train ride down and then lived and breathed the ideas in it for two very inspiring days. If you haven’t read Linchpin, first, go get a copy. Second, here’s a very brief synopsis of the ideas that I’m referring to in this post:

Here’s what Seth’s book is a call to action for: Do work that matters, solve interesting problems, connect, create, lead, give the world a gift (preferably several)- in other words, be a linchpin.

Here’s what’s holding us back: First, you don’t have to be a worker drone for the industrial era/capitalist machine anymore, but unfortunately it is what you were trained to be in school. Schools evolved to create complaint workers. (”Color inside the lines!”)

Second, your lizard brain, otherwise known as “the resistance”, is the first part of our brain that evolved millions of years ago. Its main concern is keeping you safe- so it fears ALL change like it’s a life or death issue, and takes any steps it can to stop your progress.

So I leave New York feeling full of clarity and excitement since I also happen to have this big project brewing that I want to launch in March. What perfect timing! I’m finally putting all I’ve learned from my 10 years in practice, blogging here for over a year, one mega manuscript for a printed book, one free ebook, and many conversations with my fellow CAM providers about their own triumphs and trials into one master place: an online course and community on how to grow and sustain a practice that not only pays your bills, but also feeds your spirit.

Yup, it’s a biggie (more info to follow in my next post…) and I’m feeling pretty confident that my fresh perspective on the lizard brain will keep it from interfering in my course. I’ve got your number lizard brain! This project is going to launch on the day I promised it would launch and no little internal saboteur will get in my way!

Turns out I’ve gotten very good at spotting certain signs that I’m being controlled by the lizard brain. When I spend an hour at the computer constantly cycling between checking my email, Facebook, and Twitter- the lizard is in control. When I start off working on something essential and 15 minutes later I notice that I’ve gone down some rabbit hole and am doing something pointless like cleaning out my sock drawer- yup, lizard brain. And when I keep complaining about how crazy busy I am (I’m a single mom! I have to keep my practice afloat! I need to write on my blog! I’m trying to launch this big thing!) and yet, somehow, I miraculously find time to hang out with my friends and to never miss an episode of 30 Rock? Lizard brain.

Honestly I’m in awe at how much progress I’ve made since reading Linchpin. It’s amazing how much less time things take when you separate out the pointless time wasters from the meaningful work.

This is where my lizard brain went undercover and got me.

Lizard brain (in disguise as sane brain): “Well you know Brooke, if you’re going to build this thing you might as well do it right and build the whole thing on your own from scratch this time. It’ll save you money and you’ll learn a lot about the technical details.”

Brooke (thinking this is her sane brain): “That’s a great idea! I’d feel so accomplished and proud of myself, PLUS then I’d have an excuse to waste endless hours on some crap that I don’t care about and am no good at, which will keep me from doing the important stuff. Thanks, sane brain, for helping me to find a loophole to get out of all this progress I’ve been making!”

Yeah, it didn’t go so well. At the end of all the frustrating time spent trying to understand CSS I had exactly no website, and lots of time lost on the important stuff that I actually enjoy.

Lizard brain: 1
Brooke: 1

For now it’s a tie. I’ve hired the lovely Taryn Wallis over at Phenomenoodle to set up some of the stuff I’ll need on a platform that I know and love (Wordpress). Time to keep it simple. Thanks to Taryn for seeing my distress flags on Twitter and reaching out- glad to have you on my team.

For the rest of you, dear readers, where can you get help on the stuff that’s not your strength and save yourself the angst already?

And- most importantly!- where is your lizard brain shape shifting and keeping you from doing the important work? How can you get back to it?

Parting tip one: my lizard brain and I have been talking lately as in, “Hi Lizard Brain, I know you’re scared and threatened and all, but I really don’t think I need to check my email for the 20th time this hour. I’m pretty sure nothing important has come through. But thanks.” It’s working (for now…)

Parting tip two: The single best time management technique that I’ve found is the Pomodoro technique. It’s what’s kept time wasters at near zero, and I can make progress without feeling like I’m beholden to some super complex organizational/time management protocol. It’s simple and it works like a charm.

I’m a big fan of growing your practice in a way that’s a fit with your personality. One of my core passions is that we should get rid of our imagined unpleasant practice building activities and ask ourselves to get a wee bit more creative. If you hate public speaking couldn’t you start a blog? If you hate dropping cash on some ad, couldn’t you introduce yourself to your community in other ways?That said, I got on my “you don’t have to do the practice building activities you hate” soapbox after a couple of disastrous attempts that I made very early in my first practice.

Hilarious “What the hell were you thinking” story # 1:

Enter Brooke’s deluded internal voice:
“Hey Brooke, I know you detest public speaking and you get all freaked out and deer in headlight-y even at the thought of it, but why don’t you go on down to that meeting of local chiropractors (none of whom you’ve ever met) and give a talk on just how great Rolfing is? You know, because you get nervous and shy in front of groups of people you’ve never met and you’re a new grad whose ability to talk clearly about the benefits of Rolfing is still working itself out? Doesn’t that sound great?”

And here’s how it turned out:
A group of men who’ve all been in practice for, and known one another for, eons meet up and are sharing that warm familiarity that this kind of history brings with it. Everyone is asking after everyone else’s kids, inside jokes abound, you get the idea.

I show up, the 25 year old woman who’s just moved to town and recently graduated from The Rolf Institute and I timidly (barely) introduce myself to the group.

After they all get seated and their friendly banter dies down, I clear my throat, flush bright purple, begin shaking and sweating, and squeak out a few words about Rolfing. I can’t remember for the life of me what I actually said, but I can assure you the gist went something like this, “Rolfing is really great. And it probably is beneficial alongside chiropractic. And I like it. You should too probably. I just moved here and I don’t know anyone and I don’t have any clients and I’m dyin’ out here guys so if you could please make some clients magically appear on my doorstep I’d be really grateful. They’d be sure to ask you why you sent them to this weird nervous girl, but still, it would help me to eat this month. Thanks.”

I wish I could track down one of those guys so that they could attest to the fact that I am in no way, shape, or form exaggerating here. It was that bad. But I can’t track them down because, bizarrely, none of them ever referred to me or spoke with me again.

Hilarious “What the hell were you thinking story” # 2:

Enter Brooke’s deluded internal voice:
“Hey Brooke, I know that chiropractic talk was awful, but this time one of your clients actually invited you to this gathering of local people/political fundraiser type-deal. Sure you’ve never met any of them before and you still get nervous surrounded by strangers and that whole debilitating shyness thing takes over, but I’m sure this time it’s gonna be great! These people are going to be so psyched that you showed up with so many business cards to hand out!”

And here’s how it turned out:
I do get some points for progress because at least I wasn’t giving a presentation on Rolfing. But I was there to talk it up, so I timidly mentioned to everyone that I met that I had a new Rolfing practice in town. That is, until the saucy lady with the dramatic gestures heard the word “Rolfing” from across the room and started yelling towards me, “Rolfing! Rolfing! Oh my God!” (This was not in a delighted or happy tone. Her tone skewed more towards horrified.)

You haven’t met this lovely party-goer before, so you don’t know just how commanding and over the top her gestures are. So I’ll tell you this, she now had the attention of literally everyone there, and they were all forming a circle around her. Once she had everyone’s full attention she then began telling them exactly what Rolfing was all about: “It’s like you’re a chicken being de-boned! It’s awful! It’s practically abuse. Horrible! Horrible!”

Now folks, first off, um this is not true. But Rolfing has this old school reputation for being intense (we’ve evolved, seriously) so by now I’m used to the occasional outburst like this (but no where nearing the fevered pitch of this one). These days when the Rolfing-is-so-painful storyline comes up I can laugh with them, talk about it, and soon everyone is giggling and at ease.

But back then? No. I was super sensitive and terrible at rolling with this kind of thing.

She polished me off by asking me what I was thinking moving from Boston to open a practice in Sonoma- implying with very little subtlety that Sonoma didn’t take kindly to outsiders on their turf.

I drove home crying. Good times.

Ok, so I have good reason to preach about taking on practice building activities that feel like a fit for you. That one was learned in the fire.

However, sometimes it’s worth expanding the old comfort zone a little. Sorta a good tip for life in general, I think. It’s been many, many years since those experiences and I recently found myself actually considering teaching a workshop at my favorite local yoga studio.

The problem is, when I sat down to think about what I’d be saying to all the people who would show up for it, I drew a blank. Rolfing is experiential, yet I couldn’t exactly tell a room full of 30 people that they’d each get a session in the 2 hour workshop.

I finally hit on a compromise that allowed me to get in front of a room of people again, but to do it from my strength- i.e. introducing people to my hands and my quality of touch, not some blah, blah, blah about why they should want to pay me for Rolfing.

My dear friend Ellen Lenson teaches an amazing restorative yoga class, and one bonus of restorative (among its many) is that people are in supported, passive poses for long periods of time. Just the kind of thing that’s perfect for a little touch!

I asked Ellen if I could assist her in her class by giving her students a little hands-on work in their poses and she was game. So last Wednesday I got in front of a room full of 30 people and introduced myself as the new Rolfer in town for the first time since the two California debacles (it only took 9 years, but whatever…)

And it was great! Just a short little “this is who I am and why I’m here” intro and then I got to connect with people in the best way I know how- by working on them. The result was that I gave out all the business cards that I brought (they were requested, not foisted upon people), I have one new client who has already come in, and had a lot of really lovely and thoughtful conversations about Rolfing with some of the students after the class.

I’ll be there every Wednesday now, challenging my “stand up in front of a group” fears, and easing in to some new practice building skills.

What could you do to widen the comfort zone circle a bit?

I’ve got great news! I failed! OK, so no one ever gets that excited about failure in the moment. And yes, it’s a wee bit humbling to write a blooper reel post for all of you today. But when I announced I was kicking off a new practice from scratch I promised total honesty, even with the flops. So here goes:

That whole Meet the Neighbors promotion that I dreamed up to keep my December busy? It was a total wash.

In my haste to keep momentum going through December (which I can tell you- brutal honesty remember!- didn’t work. The last 2 weeks of December and first week of January were quiet as usual) I broke one of my own most sacred rules and did the whole wide net thing. You know the one: toss out a big old net to everyone you can possibly think of and you’ll dredge up something which is better than nothing. Except it never works. It’s only a sure fire way to maximum effort and minimum return.

The sacred rule that I broke is this: do practice building outreach for who would be your ideal** clients, and forget about trying to reach and please everyone.

Seth Godin (who yes, I quote constantly, but it’s because it’s well deserved) described it best when he said, “the problem with huge markets is the same problem you’d have playing squash or racquetball on a court that’s too big. The ball doesn’t have a wall to bounce off of.” This is a great visual- imagine trying to play racquetball in an open field. Imagine whacking that ball with all your might only to send it off into empty space and you get a feeling for how exhausting and fruitless trying to target everyone is. If you can get on a proper sized court, so to speak, you can get a good game going. You also don’t waste energy sending balls out into the void.

So let’s break down the damage on the Meet the Neighbors idea.

Lost:

• About 3 hours of my time
• $60 in the cost of printing, shipping, and envelopes
• Potentially $60 in income (The only person who took advantage of my 50% off deal was the only person in the building that was already a client of mine. He may have been spurred into setting up a session because of the promotional discount- in which case I gained $60 I wouldn’t have had. Then again, he may have come in anyway and paid my full fee- in which case I lost $60. I think we’ll call this one a toss up.)

That means… drumroll please… that exactly no one who was new to my practice took advantage of the 50% off offer. No one. Nada.
For comparisons sake, I reached out to a fraction of the number of people through my Help for the Helpers promotion and it jump started my practice in no time flat. And it continues to feed my practice. That first group of people who came to see me are such generous spirits that they keep spreading the word.

So what’s the difference? In the Meet the Neighbors promotion I offered a very generous discount as a holiday gift to people based solely on the fact that they work in the same building as me. In other words, the only thing we have in common is location.

In the Help for the Helpers promotion I offered it only to the people who have been my best fans and referrers over the years: yoga teachers and other CAM practitioners.

Ok. Lesson learned. No more wasting time with those who aren’t likely to be my ideal clients.

The other experiments fared better- I got a good amount of interest from my gift certificate program, and I was right when I predicted that people find a lot of services via flyers in this town. Every time I put up flyers I seem to get between 2 and 5 new clients within 24 hours. These ivy league towns sure do love their flyers! My business is also now up on Yelp, but it’s too soon to report on that one yet. I’ll keep you posted.

So yes, there are some wins among the loss, but the thing I’m most excited about is the failure. Failures range from being a bummer (like this one) to a life altering catastrophe (trust me when I tell you I’ve had one of those). But the thing about them is that you always learn a ton. The learning is almost always more valuable than the loss. Even if the loss hurts like a bitch.

I think we spend so much time walking on eggshells terrified of making a mistake that most of us err on the side of doing nothing. Our educational system rewards those who are the best drones, and drones don’t put themselves on the line and risk failure. They color inside the lines to receive whatever tasty morsel of praise coloring inside the lines promises (hint: it’s not that tasty).

Whereas those who are willing to take a stab at something when faced with the alternative of doing nothing actually gain, well, something. Yes sometimes it’s heartbreak or embarrassment, but coupled with those is always (always) a big quantum leap in your knowledge which can get you where you want to go. All you have to do is dust yourself off and start moving again by putting that new knowledge to work.

Those who try nothing- hoping to not stand out, hoping to avoid criticism or embarrassment, hoping to coast by and that some miracle will drop into their lap what it is they’re truly yearning for- they most often get only more of the nothing.

As Seth Godin says in his newest book Linchpin (which is brilliant and addresses just how we avoid doing the work that matters out of fear so go buy 25 copies and hand them out to everyone you love) “Do the work. Fight the resistance.” In other words- keep going! Do something!

A blog post with footnotes! Hilarious!

*The title of this post is lifted from my dear friend Jonathan FitzGordon who used to own Brooklyn Yoga Center. When I first walked in and saw that he had t-shirts printed up with Brooklyn Yoga on one side and Failure is my Friend on the other, I knew I had found my dream yoga center. He’s currently doing righteous movement work at www.Fitzgordonmethod.com.

**While “ideal client” is a business-speak term that encompasses defining your ideal clients’ demographics and psychographics, I define it as “those who you’d be most delighted to see walk through your door every day, and who are likely to be vocal fans of what you do.”

Twitter is one of those things that’s blowing up in popularity, and with all the buzz (or tweets?) circulating I’ve gotten some emails from practitioners about how to use it as a practice building tool.

I’m certainly no Twitter guru (I only have 381 followers, the horror!). However, I have been using it happily for about 6 months now, and I gotta say I see its merits. And its downsides. So here’s my brief overview of where Twitter shines, where it flops, and how to get started:

The good: My favorite thing about Twitter is that it’s an amazing networking tool. If networking is too gross a word for you, allow me to replace it with, “forming lovely and interesting connections”. I’ve found some great people through Twitter, and deepened my connection to some others who I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

For example, I discovered Chris Guillebeau’s work through Seth Godin and quickly fell in love with his blog and Manifestos. I sent him a few @replies (when you precede someone’s Twitter name with the @ symbol, the message shows up in their @ reply inbox, so they know you either mentioned them or wrote to them), and eventually I caught a Tweet of his saying he’d be in NYC for a tweet-up (meet up of Twitterers). Off I went to the tweet-up and we hit it off.

Several months and several emails later, Chris sent a writer who was featuring him in Psychology Today my way and she included me in an article about people who are living unconventional lives (since I’m shamelessly mentioning it here I should tell you that it’s the Jan/Feb 2010 issue, the “Life Uncharted” article, I digress…) Psychology Today and I wouldn’t have connected if it weren’t for Twitter and Chris’s generosity.

I mention this story purely as a super tangible example of how Twitter can make meaningful connections. I connected with Chris, Chris connected me with Psychology Today, and blammo, I have a wee bit of press. However, in truth, the real gem in this whole story is that I’m connected to Chris at all. Media help aside, he’s just a helluva guy doing amazing work. Now that I’ve gotten my Twitter sea legs, I’ve found lots more wonderful people and follow them on Twitter- this, regardless of any other tangible perk- is what makes Twitter worthwhile.

The less good: I had a Twitter account for nearly a year before I bothered to use it. Every time I checked in it seemed like I was caught in a stream of half-conversations that I wasn’t a part of. It felt pointless and time consuming to me. However, once I found some people who I wanted to connect to, I was a part of this wacky form of communicating, and I grew to really enjoy it.

That said, focus first on finding people who you want to communicate with. The best way to find people you want to follow on Twitter is to see if the people who you already are in touch with are on Twitter (people whose books or blogs you read, or friends and family). In addition, it’s great to see if any businesses that you like have a Twitter account.

This can be especially helpful for growing a local practice if you connect to your local businesses. It can be something really direct, like a Pilates teacher deciding to follow a local massage therapist’s Twitter feed, or it can be really indirect. If you’re a local massage therapist, why not connect to the local restaurants that have Twitter accounts? That way you’re deepening your connection to your community in general, and you’ll be top of mind when anyone in town is asked for a massage referral.

Do I use it this way? Not yet. It’s one of my new experiments, since I mostly connect with people all over the world related to health and wellness. But it seems like a great way to get your name spread around town, so I’ll give it a shot and report back.

Another not so good feature is the huge potential time suck. Keep time boundaries on your Twitter use. Try your best to use it at least daily, but in small chunks of time. I find that if I can check in for 5 to 10 minutes in the am and pm, I’m good. When I find I’m clicking everyone’s links and going down too many rabbit holes, I have to cool it. I don’t need more black holes for my time to fall into.

Getting started:

How do I learn the nuts and bolts? If you want to know the basic stuff like how to respond to people or what the hell a re-tweet is, just grab something cheap and easy like Twitter for Dummies (I’d grab the edition co-written by Laura Fitton @pistachio to Twitter users). Don’t bother laying out a bunch of cash for some social media guru’s product. This isn’t rocket science.

What do I write about? Always remember that Twitter is a social medium, not a place people show up because they’re craving more spam and sales pitches in their lives. Be you, write about what you’re up to, what goodies you find, what you care about, and shine a light on other people doing good stuff, but don’t directly pitch people.

I’m glancing over my Twitter profile (where I can see recent Tweets I’ve sent) and it’s a hodgepodge of stuff: everything from talking with a fellow mom who’s home sick with one of her wee ones, to lamenting that a recipe of mine didn’t turn out, to re-tweeting someone else’s link about one cruise ship making the grotesque choice to go forward with their scheduled stop in Haiti so their passengers could frolic on a Haitian beach while armed guards stood by (seriously). On any given day I could be tweeting about a lot of different things, but they’re all things that I care about and that reflect what I’m up to.

Where can I go for phenomenal inspiration? Yes, I did say not to spend money on any social media guru’s overpriced products if all you want is to figure out the nuts and bolts of Twitter. However, thanks to the goodness of Chris Guillebeau (who is getting quite a lot of mentions in this post!) and Gwen Bell, there is an alternative to the smarmy internet marketing products that clog the “so you want to be a social media superstar” airwaves.

They put together the Unconventional Guide to the Social Web. Gwen’s contribution is the beautifully written, “Yoga for the Social Web”. If you want inspiration about what it means to communicate through social media, I highly recommend. It’s practically poetry. (And Gwen, who co-owns a yoga studio in Japan and is the most un-guru social media superstar I know of, is one of our people. She gets it.)

Some of my fave Tweeps:

If you’re looking for people to follow here are some of my faves (and if you’re looking for me I’m @brookethomas):

@chrisguillebeau
@gwenbell
@lissaboles
@vanessascotto
@melissapierce
@pamslim
@soniasimone
@worldmegan
@jonathanfields
@markheartofbiz
@reese
@havi
@ittybiz
@hellohealth
@marcjohns
@judyofthewoods

2009 has been very good to me, and before the clock strikes 12 tomorrow night I wanted to send you all a brief shout out of gratitude for all your support this year. Spot the ways you helped me (and you) to thrive this year:

1. You read Practice Building 101 and/or the blog and sent me delicious emails to let me know how much it helped you. Spectacular words like “lifesaver” and “THANK YOU” (yes, in all caps), and “joyous” were used, which made me feel like my work is worth something, and that is pretty much the best feeling ever.

2. You emailed me to tell me how delighted you were to find The Well Practice after Googling the words “HARO” and “gyrotonic” together. This may be the funniest search engine word combo to lead to my door thus far.

3. You embraced me as your Rolfer in New Haven thereby giving me good news to report on the blog from the ‘practice building in a crap economy’ front. This had the additional perk of saving me from having to report that I was a failure. Whew.

4. You shared my writing with someone you know who could benefit from it and sung The Well Practice’s praises. (Most recently big thanks to Burton Kent of Acupuncture Clinic Marketing. I finally solved the mystery of where all the new acupuncturists were coming from when one of your readers emailed me and told me you’d shared a link with your list. Thanks!)

5. You (Jenn Givler, Honora Wolfe, and Dan Clements and Tara Gignac) wrote fab guest posts!

6. You are one of the following people whose work inspired the hell out and kept me moving forward. Huge thanks to Seth Godin, Lissa Boles, Chris Guillebeau, Jonathan Fields, Havi Brooks, Naomi Dunford, Hugh MacLeod, Melissa Pierce, and Vanessa Scotto (who is amazing even if her website isn’t link-able yet).

7. You turned one year old on October 17th! (You being my blog)

8. You sat across from me over Indian food, or a latte, or in a park, or over the phone, and poured your heart out about what you really needed to be happy in your practice.

9. You gave me this nifty “thank you as a list” idea in your charming Christmas card.

10. You don’t know this, because I haven’t bared my soul to most of you in a moody cafe or anything, but you helped me climb out of the rubble of a very, very challenging 2008 by showing up here and caring about what I had to offer. Thank you.

And last but not least, here were the top posts of the year:

Feeling Grateful (and Hearing Voices)

Un-Guru

Non-Sensical Panic Attacks

Kicking it Off On the Cheap

Practicing Radical Generosity

Why Does the Word “Networking” Make Us All Want to Shower With A Brillo Pad?

Happy New Years! Sending you all lots of love and happy practice wishes for 2010!

Hi all! This is a guest post from the good people over at Alternative Health Practice- Dan Clements and Tara Gignac. Check them out since they’re also doing great work to help us all thrive in our practices!

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.

to read the rest of the post, hop on over here…

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we’re entering what is, for many of us, a slow season in our practices. Yes, the tumbleweeds are about to start blowing across the prairie my friends.

Every year since the beginning of my practice I’ve written off that barren stretch of time between Thanksgiving and New Years as a time when everyone is too busy and cash strapped to schedule with me. I had caved to the defeatist in me by consoling myself with the knowledge that the New Year’s Resolution boom always followed.

Eh, I think it’s time for a change. This year I’m just saying “no!” to the inner defeatist! No more tumbleweeds in December!

Ok, ok, to be fair my first couple of weeks of the month are looking as full as usual. But I know that we’re in that lull where people haven’t quite realized just how many commitments they have this month, and just how surprising the cost of holiday shopping is. I figure the time is now to grab people while they’re in their lull and try to keep a little momentum going. After all, we private practice people have gifts to buy and travel to pay for too!

So here are my Operation Thriving December brainstorms that I’m working on. Feel free to steal whatever feels like a fit for you, and to leave your own December practice building ideas in the comments. The more we can share with eachother, the more we can all rock it this holiday season.

• Get to know the neighbors: The wellness center I have my office in happens to be one bright spot o’wellness in a large office building filled mostly with lawyers and mortgage brokers. It’s a bit odd, but it works for us. The thing is, our dear neighbors don’t really know we exist (the center is a year old, and did I mention it’s a big building?). Turns out the holiday season is the perfect time to introduce ourselves to our neighbors with a little ethical bribe gift to inspire them to come on down and get some work. I’m thinking we’ll get some holiday cards or postcards printed up with “Happy Holidays from your neighbors! Hope this gift can bring you some holiday cheer and help you to kick off your New Year’s Resolutions. Bring this card in for 50% off one session if you book between now and January 15th.” with a link to our websites, etc. Yes, 50% is a big heap off a session- but it’s only for one session and we didn’t want it to seem too self-serving. Yes the goal is to juice up our practices, but it is also a gift. In my mind a gift requires a certain level of generosity. If you decide to use this idea- remember the crucial cut-off date. You don’t want to be honoring these things come spring when the whole idea is to keep your winter busy. For printing, I’m looking at Zazzle’s holiday postcards. This design is my favorite so far. Overnight Prints has some custom card and postcard options as well. What neighbors- whether they’re near your office or not- need to know you exist?
• Give thanks: There are always a few people who grow our practices for us like crazy by spreading the good word. You know who they are- they’re your true fans. Methinks tis the season to express our gratitude with a dollar amount off of a session. You decide just how generous you’re feeling- $10 off? $20 off? 50% off? (gasp!) free? Send them this discount thank you in a cheery holiday card and your true fans will be spreading the word about just how fab you are with even more vigor.
• Rock the gift certificates with a little something extra: If you offer gift certificates, don’t sit around waiting for someone to request one. Remind your clients of this wonderful gift idea by sending out an email to your client list. I’m thinking I’ll up the ante a little with a perk for the purchaser: anyone who buys a gift certificate gets $10 (or $20?) off their next session with me. That way they get a gift for themselves at the same time that they’re gifting another, and it insures that they’ll be more inclined to schedule with you sooner than later.

These projects ought to keep me busy through the New Year. However, I usually report on practice building experiments after the fact to let you know how they went, so this time I’ll do a follow up to know what flew and what bombed.

Very Happy Holidays to all of you! And again, I’m just ridiculously honored to be able to be of service to all of you. Thanks for reading.

* It’s long, I know, but I’m baring my soul here people. Feel free to print it out to save you from screen-staring.

Flash back about thirteen years ago and you’d find me pretty beat down physically. I had a jaw that was completely locked shut and chronic pain in my spine and head that was severe enough that I spent some days focusing simply on getting out of bed. Ugh, I still remember the recurring nightmare that someone had bolted a thick, heavy, steel helmet into my skull and I was fruitlessly trying to find a way to pry it off, unable to even lift my head from the weight and pain of it. These were not my brightest hours.

All this pain and body yuckiness had been (most likely) caused by a birth injury, so I had grown up with some form of chronic pain and seizures since childhood. As a child all the doctors I went to simply scratched their heads, finding it hard to believe that a child could have chronic pain. “Growing pains” they’d say. Seizures they could believe and I was endlessly tested and medicated, but the pain didn’t factor in for them. My family and I didn’t know that there was anywhere to turn other than conventional medicine, so there were a lot of years spent with head scratching MDs.

I don’t mean to turn this into a mythical story- I wasn’t born with a debilitating disease that I had to struggle with. Many are, and I don’t mean to boo hoo my situation into something bigger than it was. I was simply born with a glitch.

Because this glitch had always been with me, it took me until I was this broken, at age twenty-two, to realize that not everyone was feeling the way I was. My pain wasn’t normal. Something was off.

I went the only route I knew how to take and found a doctor who specialized in Temporal Mandibular Joint Dysfunction. He was a part of a new clinic out of Tufts Dental Hospital in Boston that was treating severe TMJ without surgery.

Meeting Dr. Murad Padamsee changed my life (and you thought I’d be bashing the docs… nah, they’re lifesavers too). He changed my life not only because he helped me to get my jaw open again- and without sharp pointy instruments and a titanium jaw replacement, yay!- but also because he realized that complete healing has to take into consideration the whole patient.

Because my pain wasn’t improving, he sent me off on a quest to find some good bodywork (other than a vague idea about massage, I didn’t really know what he meant) and meditation classes. That he saw the whole of me, and sent me off to find the things that would help, was profound.

I contacted Joe Wheatley, a Rolfing practitioner, feeling nervous and seriously fatalistic. I had spent more than a year now traveling an hour each way from Providence to Boston to see specialists three to four days per week, and this was on top of college and a part time job. I was ridiculously exhausted and didn’t have it in me to undertake a new quest. I wanted to get better. Now.

I remember telling Joe on the phone that I was truly at the end of my rope and that if he didn’t think he could help me that he really should just let me know so that I could find someone who could. Joe and I are friends now, so I can tell you that the man loves a challenge. He just told me to come on in for one session, and that if I didn’t feel any result at all, he wouldn’t take money from me. That felt like a pretty solid deal, so off I went into the wilderness of Rhode Island for my very first Rolfing session.

After that session I not only paid Joe, but I felt quite sure that if he had required that I sign over my first born child in order to could continue the work, I would have (fortunately no such deal was struck- my firstborn is pretty dang cute).

I could turn my head to the right for the first time in years and I felt my pain reduce by an astonishing degree with just that one session. Joe and this magical Rolfing stuff had found a way to take the steel helmet off, which was pretty freaking euphoric for me.

I knew that day that I could be free and the words that my mind kept screaming to me as I drove home were, “Why the hell didn’t I know this existed before!!” A lifetime spent trying to ignore the pain when there was help for me all along seemed ridiculous. There’s nothing that pisses me off more than needless suffering. It’s, well, needless.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my local yoga studio, Fresh Yoga, in their wide-open and gorgeously light filled space. I was one of about twenty students who had shown up for a workshop on how Alexander Technique can be incorporated into one’s yoga practice.

I sat on my mat and watched Rachel, my Alexander teacher, work with the first student in front of the class. As she worked I watched the student light up and have that series of a-has that we can all have when we find a way to be more happily inhabiting our bodies. She got giddy and looked like she might cry for joy. I know this moment well.

As I watched this woman light up a wave of extreme gratitude washed through me. It was actually kind of shocking in how intense it was. It was like this physical warmth that ran right through me and said loudly (yes, I’m hearing voices now), “Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me serve this community.”

In many ways, that “why the hell didn’t I know this existed before!!” voice has never gone away. I want more people to have that giddy, cry for joy moment that this student was having in the Alexander workshop and that I had after my first Rolfing session (and many times since). To steal a favorite Alan Keightley quote from my friend Chris Guillebeau, “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”

I became a Rolfing practitioner nine years ago because I wanted to contribute to the number of a-ha moments going around. In recent years, I decided that if I can help more wellness providers to give more people that moment- then the word will spread in a much bigger way and there will be less of the maddening needless suffering.

That decision led me here, to the creation of The Well Practice.

So this Thanksgiving I’m thankful for a birth injury, chronic pain, all the people and work that led me out of it and into a whole new world.

And mostly thank you to all of you. Thanks for doing the work that you do and spreading more a-has and healing goodness around. It’s needed. Keep it up.

What are you feeling grateful for as we roll into Thanksgiving?

I believe that there are subconscious beliefs that run rampant in the holistic health world and that a choice few of them have become so unquestioned and insidious that they can be upgraded to “epic myth” status.

Being in the lovely position to talk with a lot of practitioners in the field I see a lot of these myths bouncing around out there- things like the more modalities I have on my business card, the busier my practice will be. Or (one of my personal least favorites), to grow your practice you have to do things, and maybe even become someone, that you hate.

But what may the most damaging epic myth bouncing around in our collective heads is the idea that making money is evil. I had a friend (an acupuncturist) call it the healing martyr myth, and I think it’s fitting, so let’s stick with that.

The healing martyr myth says that the desire to make money from your practice debases what you do.

It says that if you truly care about helping your clients, you must have no thoughts or intentions of actually making money in your practice.

It says that to make money in your practice means that your priorities are off.

It says, in short, that we’re engaged in an either/or proposition- that you can’t tend to your own financial needs at the same time that you tend to your clients’ needs.  

Um, I call bullshit.

I think that this attitude stems from our fundamentally giving natures. We got into this work to be of assistance, not to see what we could gain from it. To this I say, right on! It’s what makes you a dedicated practitioner of your craft. Nevertheless, if you continue to practice in this form, where there is a one-way exchange of energy, and you’re giving freely without the ability to receive, sooner or later, you’ll crash and burn. All human beings are here to contribute, and all human beings are worthy of receiving in equal measure.

In short, what I’m saying is that we’re engaged in a both/and proposition. If you can’t serve yourself, you can’t serve your clients (if you burn yourself out, or if you need to work five part time jobs to pay the bills on top of your practice, you’re sunk). If you can’t serve your clients, you can’t serve yourself (if you got into this work for the wrong reason- which is rare- your clients will smell the inauthenticity and leave you with a very quiet waiting room). Both parts of the equation need to happen for us and our clients to thrive. Lose either side of that equation, and it doesn’t work.

The reason why the healing martyr myth is our most damaging collective myth is that if you believe, even or especially subconciously, that to make money is evil- you will always struggle and always find a way not to thrive and to barely eek out an existence.

And if you’re barely eking out an existence you don’t have the opportunity to contribute what you set out to contribute. You can’t change people’s health and lives. To say nothing of the fact that you don’t get to do the work you love, and have signed up for a boatload of suffering.

From where I’m sitting- with my mission to make holistic healthcare much more widely utilized by everyone (yes, everyone)- I’m hugely hoping that most or many of us can decide to lay down the healing martyr thing. Without letting go of that myth, we, and all the gifts our work has to offer, stay in the periphery. I dig the periphery as much as the next slightly off center gal, but the periphery means that many, many people are missing out.

So how to embrace making money if you’ve decided that it truly is the root of all evil? Let’s put things in perspective. Money is really - drumroll, please - just a means of exchange. That’s all. Having money means you get to exchange it for whatever you want, and you don’t have to fret about not being able to do that. If you suddenly happen to come upon five million dollars, the devil isn’t going to intervene and make you exchange that money for a yacht and servants that you will use as footstools (unless that’s what you’re into).

Since you’re a wellness provider, I’m going to assume that the “yacht with servants as footstools” setup is not for you. So imagine, if you did happen to receive five million dollars, what would you do with it? Create a meaningful non-profit? Buy a house outright in order to give yourself and your children a secure financial future? Travel the world and learn new languages? Set up a free integrative medicine clinic?

For a less outlandish fantasy, what would you do and how would you feel if you never had to worry about making enough money in your practice? What if every work day you could serve exactly who you want to serve and at the end of the month you could gleefully pay your bills and then stash the rest into savings? Are you taking a breath of relief yet?

You never lose control of what money gets exchanged for in your life. More money only means more ability to contribute, both to yourself and to the world.

Oh it is so easy to lull oneself to sleep.

So a few months ago I announced to all ya’ll that I would be kicking off practice number three and regaling you with tales of the tactics I used to grow the aforementioned new practice. I imagined much trial and error- lots of goodies for a blooper reel- and some shining successes. However, the thing about doing something the third time over a span of nine years means that my radar for what will or won’t work is pretty well tuned. (It only took nine years…)

So the grand experiment started well- too well. After sorting through all the minutiae that comes with starting any practice (finding an office, getting licensed, building the website) and running one big old promotion- things were really hopping! I had, and have, a full practice full of delightful clients.

And very little to write about on my blog in terms of real-time experimentation in practice building.

Like you- I don’t particularly want to spend gobs of time on the growing of the thing when I am, in fact, already doing the thing. Especially when the other nooks and crannies of my time are veeeery full with raising my wee one, some work with other clients, and a mega overhaul of the The Well Practice going on behind the scenes (the grand unveiling is probably about 4 to 6 months away- so stay tuned- it will rock. Oh yes, it will rock.)

However, unlike you I’ve commited to being a practice building guinea pig and I’m a full blown practice building nerd (we’re a very rare species). So it’s time for me to rouse myself from my slumber and up the ante. I have loads of practice building experiments in mind that I can (and will) run. These are my upcoming commitments to you with more to follow:

I will:

• Go old school by running a full-blown flyer campaign. That’s right! Paper tacked to bulletin boards! I live and work very near the campus of Yale- so it’s kind of a flyer town. I figured I’d go super low tech and see what happens.
• Put a Rolfing ebook for current and prospective clients up on my website for free download (aaaah, some tech deliciousness).
• Get myself on Yelp and perhaps a few other directories (more tech deliciousness).
• Advertise. Wow, I never thought I’d go for this one again. The last time I ran an ad for my practice was about nine years ago and it wasn’t just a dud of a failure- it was a mind-blowing failure. (story to follow) so I’ve been pretty allergic to the whole ad thing. But so many people do it that I’ll give it a shot and report back.

And you will? Let me be your guinea pig?

All (reasonable) suggestions for practice building will be considered. I’m not going to walk naked through town with a sandwich board for Rolfing- but if you throw some ideas my way that you’re curious about trying, or that you have tried with limited to no success- I’ll dive in and give it a try and report back.

Who doesn’t love having their own personal guinea pig? Go ahead and email suggestions or leave them in the comments section. Let’s get this party started.