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.

If you already have a website- bravo! For those of you that don’t either because you’re just getting your practice started or because you don’t want to commit to the expense I have to tell you- it’s a priority. 90% (at least!) of my business came through my website. Even at the stage when word of mouth was almost totally sustaining me, people visited the website before they decided to give me a call.

A website is truly your virtual self. It’s where people can form that first contact in their relationship with you. Remember, our fields require a great deal of intimacy and trust- no one is going to want to schedule without some indicator that they can trust you. A website is a great way to ‘put yourself out there’.

Fortunately there are several ways to go about a website. I can and will devote several future teleseminars and blog posts on getting your website right (and I have some stellar guests lined up who are experts on web marketing and website building, so stay tuned). However, since this bundle of blog posts is specifically dealing with growing your business in tight times, I’m going to focus on how to get a web presence up cheaply. For those of you who already have a website, read on, both of these free options can also significantly grow the impact of your current web presence.

First up- how do you do it easily, quickly and for free? It’s not only possible, it can be a good way to go. If you want to get a site up in a few minutes for free (with almost no learning curve), there are two good options: Blogger and Squidoo.

BLOGGER
Blogger, obviously, is a blogging application. However, because it’s so easy to use and FREE- did I mention free- a lot of people are adapting it for use for a basic website. (One site to check out for a template on how to do this well is Kumquat Cupcakery. It has nothing to do with wellness, I admit, but I have a major sugar tooth and am a fan of these cupcakes, so I discovered their blog meets website.)

On blogger you’ll have an opportunity to fill the right margin with all the brochure type info you want- contact info, about acupuncture or reiki or pilates or whatever, etc. The extra bonus of using blogger for your brochure website, is that you can, obviously, have blog posts as well. These are going to be the biggest business building piece of a blog web presence. With your posts, potential clients get a chance to get a feel for your voice and personality. Remember the bit about intimacy and trust- your blog posts will establish you as an expert and will flesh out your “virtual self”. If people feel like they can get to know you through your posts, you’ll greatly increase your success in attracting clients. Another plus is that the search engines love blogs. If you have a blog that you’re posting to regularly (I recommend at least once a week) you’ll come up higher in the search results when someone types in something that’s a match for what you do.

In short- if you want to get a web presence going in 5 minutes for free- give Blogger a shot. If you already have a website, it’s a good idea to also get a blog up for the benefit of increasing your communication with potential clients, and giving them an opportunity to better get to know you through your posts. It’ll also increase traffic to your current site.

SQUIDOO
Squidoo is the other free and easy website alternative. Squidoo was started by one of my (and most people’s) marketing heros, Seth Godin, and the man is a master communicator. Because of this the Squidoo site is chock full of everything you could possibly need to know about getting started.

The gist is that on Squidoo you build what they call a lens on any subject- for example Jane Doe’s Shiatsu Practice, or Acupuncture in Pheonix- whatever you want. The lens is then a collection of absolutely any info you want to impart on this subject. In addition to answering whatever questions you want about your practice (who you are, what your education is, etc) You can link to YouTube videos, Amazon books, blog posts, whatever. Lots of people use Squidoo to build a page about themselves and what they do- so it can be a great website alternative.

The marketing pluses of using Squidoo are that search engines, again, love it as much as they love blogs. From a potential client’s perspective, again, it establishes you as an expert and someone they want to work with. If you’re a pilates teacher, for example, you can have links to your favorite pilates books and videos on Amazon. While this may seem like giving business away (i.e. they won’t hire me if they can buy a much cheaper video on Amazon) I’ve found that the contrary is true. We all know that videos absolutely don’t compare to working with an actual teacher. Plus this person is already on your lens- they’re seeking out something beyond the video stuff because they, likely, have already discovered that they won’t get the same thing from video instruction. I digress, but what I’m trying to say is that if you make it clear that your motivation is to be of assistance and you provide great content to people, your good karma will be repaid to you in new clients. Trust me. Anyway- back to what I was saying- Squidoo- same deal as Blogger- free, super user friendly, and fast. If you already have a website and want to get more traffic, I’d heartily recommend getting started on Squidoo as well.

CUSTOM SITES- CHEAPLY!
If you check out these options and you still want to go for a traditional website there are still some good options. If you are of the DIY mindset and want to give building your own site a go check out Dreamweaver- this is industry standard for building websites, but requires knowledge of html. Two simpler tools that don’t require html Coffeecup and NVU. Coffeecup has a free 30 day trial. NVU is completely free.

If you’re willing shell out some money to avoid what might be a steep learning curve (and there is a huge benefit to using your time where your strengths are- I’d never build a site because in the 6 months it’d take me to figure the whole thing out, it’d cost me as much money in lost income as it would have cost to have just hired someone in the first place) you can go to Elance and have people bid on your job. It’s a site full of freelancers who want to work for you. Because they’re competing with one another for jobs, you can usually get a really good price. The site is also tightly controlled for quality with ratings systems and with super secure payment. Elance is good stuff.

That’s a bundle of cheap and free website info- so go forth and put it to use!