At long last, the fully gut renovated (free!) ebook is ready for download. Practice Building 101: The I-Don’t-Have-to-Feel-Like-an-Icky-Car-Salesman-Guide to Growing a Thriving Wellness Practice is now yours for the low, low price of $0. As some of you know, I first put out a free practice building ebook nearly a year ago. It was definitely full of lots of great info, but badly in need of editing and desperately in need of a massive design overhaul. And now it’s here! It’s fully re-written and ready to go. I could go on and on about what its perks are and who can benefit from it, but that’s all here. So I won’t repeat myself. Needless to say, if your practice needs a kick in the pants, get it, read it, use it.  

For those of you who haven’t read the old version: Phew! Because who wants to read something twice, and this one is much, much, much- well it’s just far superior to the first version.

For those of you who did read the old version: I can’t really give you a big old reading assignment, can I? If you already read it and don’t want to dive into the new one- what can ya do? I can’t really blame you. However, here are some reasons why you might bother to at least skim it:  

• Reese Spykerman, the designer extraordinaire, has done an amazing job with design and layout. So if you find yourself using the old ebook as a reference, this one will be much easier to navigate that way. Plus, it’s sooo much prettier. So- for me- at least click through the pages and marvel at what Reese has done. Lovely stuff.
• I’ve made the practice building categories much easier to navigate.
• Totally updated info- especially in the toolbox section. Blogs, video blogs, and podcasts have gotten some extra special attention.
• I pulled out anything I thought was extraneous to just getting the job done- that being the job of more paying clients walking through your door- so I kind of cut to the chase with this version.

My intention then, as now, was to create a comprehensive resource with no barriers (um, free) so that as many people as possible could get their hands on it and put it to use.

My mission with this website is to contribute to the tipping point of holistic healthcare to where it becomes the totally obvious thing that everyone chooses to use in their lives. My hope is to do this through helping people to thrive in their practices. So, if you read it and feel like it was worthwhile, please pass it along to anyone else you feel can benefit.

If you want extra brownie points (and an actual tangible reward) you can talk to the school you attended and let them know this is a free resource they can offer to their students. Come on, take pity on the soon to be grads. Remember how hard those days were? Oh, and as for the tangible reward: if you get Practice Building 101 on your school’s reading list, I’ll give you a free jumpstart coaching session. We’ll talk for an hour and figure out your game plan for getting you to waiting list levels of demand.

This post is a part of a series chronicling my process of starting my third wellness practice from scratch in a new city. If you missed the other posts, feel free to check them out:

Starting from scratch, again

How to become a (local) rockstar

Office space and Dr. Evil

Good design. Get some.

Yahoo! New Haven Rolfing is born in cyberspace! The website for my new practice is up and ready to go and the most amazing thing happened while I was creating it: I enjoyed the process.

The last time I had to write copy for a website or brochure for my Rolfing practice was many moons ago (about 6 years ago, to be exact) and I labored through writing it. At the time I was still in that nervous, newbie mindset- even though I’d been at it for 3 years already- which was dominated by the thought, “I’m new at this. So people are going to think I suck at it. So I’d better prop up my web copy with a bunch of big, fancy words to they know I studied really  hard in school, and will think I suck less.”

This mindset resulted in a boring website with a bunch of academic words sprinkled around. In other words, a snooze fest. Worst of all, a snooze fest that doesn’t give new clients any accessible information about what I do, or any indication of who I am as a human being.

As I see it, almost all wellness practitioners of every variety stumble into these same two pitfalls. So let’s address them each separately through the lens of my own ridiculous blunders:

You do what, exactly?

Rolfing is one of those modalities with a bad name. Literally. I’ve had people think it was called “Ralphing” and ask me if that means I actually make people throw up. (Good times. And no, if you were wondering). This unfortunate name makes Rolfing more challenging to explain than, say, massage therapy, but regardless of what you practice, you have to work at articulating what you do without dredging up all the gobbledy-gook words you learned in school. Your new and potential clients didn’t go to school with you. They have no idea what you’re talking about if you use the big words as a crutch.

For example, I can say, “Rolfing works within the fascial network to achieve palintonicity so that gravity can act as the therapist.” (ok, I’m not sure my old website was quite that bad, but that is exactly what I learned in school) or I can say, “As a Rolfer, my sincere goal in working with clients is for their alignment and posture to improve, for pain to significantly decrease or disappear, and for movement to become more supported, balanced, and fluid.” Which makes more sense? Which one makes you want to head but a curb? Which one makes you want to check out this thing with the wacky name?

Who are you, exactly?

The other bummer about writing like a robot is that people think of you as, well, a robot. That is to say, that you become in their minds “generic acupuncturist” or “generic yoga teacher”.  The biggest problem with this, besides the fact that you’re not “generic wellness practitioner”, is that what potential clients are most interested in finding out before they contact you is who you are. Not in any kind of deep, soul-searching way, but they want to get a sense of your personality. Your personality is the main thing they’re going to go on when they decide to work with you. Think of all the people you’ve worked with who have been your practitioners. The people who you’ve developed long term therapeutic relationships with are the people who get you, and who you get.

This leads us to the crucial issue of finding your voice. This is something that I feel like I’m just settling into. I was looking over older blog posts yesterday and I realized that this feeling of flow when I’m writing is pretty new. And it’s a good feeling. Really, really freaking good.

I recommend you take some time to get in touch with your voice- whether it’s your written voice, your spoken voice, or your way of being with clients (which, ideally, is quite a lot like your way of being when you’re with everyone else). You don’t have to be sharp or hip; you don’t have to be a genius or a joker- you just have to be you. When you’re you, you attract the kinds of clients you’re going to capital L Love working with- because they’re your people. The added bonus of this is a built in burn-out defense since your work days won’t be spent with people who make you feel like you’re swimming upstream.

One of the best ways I know of to get in touch with your voice is to write or tell the story of how you found the modality you practice. (If you’re a writer, put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. If you hate to write, record yourself speaking, or have someone interview you and record it.) Everyone has the story about their first acupuncture session, or first Pilates class, or whatever. It’s that moth to a flame story. Something about what you practice totally lit you up inside when you first found it. Talking about that is the most natural way I know of to begin to notice your natural voice. That and practice. Finding your voice is a skill that takes time and experimentation- at least it has for me.

*Once you’ve done this exercise, include this story on your website! One of the things that I did get right on my last website was talking about what I call my Rolfing Hallelujah experience. I’d say that at least 80% of my clients came to me and told me they chose to work with me over other Rolfers because I had talked about my personal experience with Rolfing on my website (the current version is here). People want to know who you are and why you do what you do- so hop to it and let the world get to know your lovely self!

I admit it, I have one consistent gripe about the world of complementary and alternative medicine. It’s bad design. I’ve recently gone to two separate websites which represent two separate women who are total geniuses at their chosen modalities. (For the sake of kindness, and because I respect these women, I’m not going to give links to their sites.) These are women who’ve built a huge name for themselves because the work they’re each doing is so innovative and needed. And yet, I get to their sites and I cringe. I worse than cringe- I do a full body cringe. Hideous stuff. Terrible colors, zero usability, great info that’s buried in weird places. Ugh!

The thing that really bugged me when I sought out these sites only to be disappointed is that this happens all the time. I know we’re not trained to be artists or designers, and we don’t have to be. However, what we do need to do is to value design as the tremendous asset it is, and to hire those who can make it happen for us.

I think it all boils down to Cherry On Top Syndrome. The symptoms of those suffering from COTS are a belief that if their work is good, then good design is an unnecessary added bonus that’s not needed. If you have the time, energy, and money- you go right ahead and plop that cherry on top. If not, good work is good work, right? If you’re a good practitioner, it will shine through, and that’s what’s important.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- doing the best work you can possibly do is absolutely crucial. I would never argue against that. However, the people who are seeking you out don’t know that you’re an amazing acupuncturist, or massage therapist, or whatever. When they find your site what they’re looking for is a signifier that your work is good. That signifier is good design.

Good design can make you seem bigger than you are. It can indicate to potential and current clients that you’re serious about your work, which they read as great at your work. This can’t be underestimated.

I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design and I still hired someone to design my new Rolfing logo. Even with a degree from a bonafide art school, I haven’t spent the last several years creating logos, so I wasn’t going to go there. Leave it to the pros- it’s too important to do an amateur job and botch it. Nette Gaastra designed my New Haven Rolfing logo and I’m delighted with the work she did. Reese Spykerman has designed my re-written ebook (to be released within the next two weeks- stay tuned) and it’s totally stunning- light years better than the DIY crap I churned out on my own. Now I can feel proud of spreading that resource around.

This lovely little site is about to get a total overhaul. The Well Practice, as a name, is a snooze-fest and the design looks dour and depressing to me. It was a good first shot- better to launch something and tweak as you go than never launch at all- but it’s time for it to more clearly reflect my goals. Stay tuned. I’m very excited.

To upgrade your own design- I highly recommend both Nette and Reese. Two other options are Crowd Spring and Elance. Yes, you’ll spend some money up front, but it’s far more expensive to limp along with bad design than to invest up front in work that will convey the quality of your work. Remember, most people visiting your website or glancing at your business card have a very simple subconscious formula going on: good design = good practitioner, bad design = bad practitioner. It may not be fair, but it is what it is.