Are you frustrated with trying everything to build your dream practice? Are you constantly complaining things aren’t moving fast enough for you? Do you want to snap your fingers and have your every wish appear instantly?
Me too!!! I would love to have a magic wand and have all my dreams instantly appear. Unfortunately, that isn’t how things work, and if you figure out instant manifestation, please send me the secret. Why isn’t your practice taking off as quickly as you expect it to?
There are many reasons. For starters you have unrealistic expectations. Building based of instant gratification is a recipe for disaster.
It takes time to build a practice. Have you built one before? What knowledge of running a business do you have? Marketing? Contracts, target population and ideal location. Contractor versus being an associate? Split or rent based? Do I get a dispensary? How do you make money while you are not seeing patients/clients?
These are a small components of what goes through your head when you are starting up. In the expert field, it is called unconscious incompetence. You don’t even know what you don’t know yet. You have no idea which questions to ask, or where to start building. And that is OK!!! Avoid stressing out about this. This is the natural order of things. You must do the doing before you can gain the knowledge. Books do not teach you how to run your business. Books give you a framework and then you have to action it.
You get valuable information and feedback while you are actioning it. Nowhere is it expected that you be perfect or magically create a 6- 7 figure practice right out of school. That is your unrealistic expectation.
In general, just following the wellness model it takes a good 3 years to build up a solid clientele and you are working on ALL DIFFERENT TYPES OF SKILLS, not just seeing patients. You are working on systems, marketing, getting out to trade shows, doing corporate talks, seminars, webinars, social media posting, other forms of advertising, and the list goes on.
When you add in the expert model to the wellness model you will accelerate how quickly you build a 6- 7 figure practice. You are playing by different rules and the expert model relies heavily on mentoring and modelling other people in the field who achieved the level of success that you want to achieve.
The expert model gets paid for results, not based on hours. A concept that is foreign to most practitioners. Get paid for how amazing you are at guiding people to health, vs the time that you spent with them. The expert model doesn’t cater to the people who only want to spend their insurance money, and not a dime more. In the wise words of Caroline Myss “When you put limits on your healing journey, all you get is limited healing”.
When I shifted into to blending the expert and wellness model I started to build my practice a lot faster. I had a lot more free time with my son, and was able to stop the overwhelm-burnout cycle. I am able to handle running a practice, an international institute in 4 different designations, live in Nunavut with limited internet, raise three rescue puppies and have to watch my son full time.
I couldn’t have done that with the wellness model alone. I wouldn’t be working, or my practice would be my hobby. If you want to build faster you need to break open the limited box of wellness. You need to start incorporating other skills and be part of an industry that trains you to do it faster.
This is where your expectations need to meet your industry. If you want to build faster than average, then bridge into an industry that caters for that, OR be aware that it takes 3 years to build the solid foundation. Both paths are valid, and better for different people. The take home here, is to be gentle on yourself and set realistic expectations.
The other reason people don’t build as fast as they would like to is because they expect instant gratification. This goes hand in hand with unrealistic expectations. I must admit, I deal with this one. I constantly remind myself that it takes the amount of time put into it task multiplied by three for it to manifest into this world. If it took me 3 weeks to complete the task then I am looking at 9 weeks for the return. A universal law that is not taught in the wellness model.
My mentor, Dr. Kim Redman, will be the first to tell you that I relied heavily on my talent and moment I decided I wanted my goal, is the moment I expected to have it magically show up in my life. She constantly reminds me, that in this lifetime and in this reality, magic doesn’t happen like that anymore.
Here is an example: Social Media posting and Facebook Lives. When I was doing them for 3 weeks I was fed up. I gave social media a three-week trial period. The amount of time and energy I was investing in posting I felt that I wasn’t seeing the results. When it comes to investing time now a days it has to be worth it to me.
You are a magical and powerful being, and if you’re reading this most likely an overachieving high functioning A type like myself. The take home of this blog is to be kind to yourself and evaluate which path you want to take. The path of Wellness model only; which will have you building slower with a lot more time and energy and less return on the money. Or the amazing blend of the expert model with the wellness model; less energy, different allotment of time, and a boat load more money while serving more people and hitting the actual root cause of disease.
Questions???? Send me an email at drliz@bolenhealthinstite.com. We can set up a zoom tea and talk about which options are right for you. I act like a sorting hat listening to what you really want out of your practice. I will send you resources and give you awareness of your next steps. I honour the path that is right for you.
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