Have you noticed how everyone seems to be selling CHEAP, FREE and EASY?  I wonder if you are like me and have chased down all the cheap, free and easy things, only to become bitterly disappointed when cheap, free or easy ends up being:

Time consuming

Energy sapping

And expensive

 

I have chased the elusive cheap, free and easy way to build my practice, fill my practice, grow my online list, build my network, recruit, get my accounts in order, create more leads and convert more sales.

You name it and I’ve probably purchased an online program on it, attended a FREE webinar on it; or paid some ridiculously small amount of money hoping that THIS time it would be THE THING that was going to make all my wishes come true.

The truth is however, if something is financially cheap it will require a lot of time and energy to bring the finally cheap thing to fruition.

If something is going to be easy, then chances are I will be paying for someone to implement for me, because, well, implementation always comes with a cost.

And if something is going to be FREE on the front end, there will be a cost somewhere, a cost in time, in energy or finances.

It’s a universal law.

What’s really going on?

We need to talk about this because I am speaking to clinicians all the time who feel betrayed by the promises of their peers on the cheap, free and easy marketing that’s been going on.  And please understand that it’s not the person doing the marketing’s fault.  You see this type of advertising has been around long before Mad Men, and long before building a private practice coaching was a thing.

Cheap, FREE and easy is a compelling marketing message – we all want cheap, free and easy.  We all want our practices full, our lives easy and more money than we’ve dared to hope or dream of.

The problem comes when we don’t know, what we don’t know – and we end up feeling cheated, mislead and, like I said before, betrayed.

Why This Matters.

We need to let go of wanting the easy way and embrace the fact that building a business of any sort – online, offline, combination – clinical or non-clinical takes WORK.

We have all gone to clinician school.  No one expected to become an excellent clinician without doing the work.  I remember how hard university was.  I remember feeling like I was never going to cut it.  Good grief I had a hard enough time working out how to access the Microfiche (yes that’s how old I am people).  None of us would dream of putting out a sign that said – “I’m a wannbe counsellor, SLP, OT, PT, Dietician, so -on and so forth, who hasn’t yet finished her training, but give me a go and we will work it as we go along.  Oh, and by the way you need to pay me for my willingness to learn.”

Yet for some reason, we think that by deciding to become a private practitioner, as if by magic the new things we need to learn will appear in our heads and we will have morphed into some amazing business owner-cum-clinician.

Building a business takes work.  It means we have new learning to do.   AND given that we are in an ever-changing world full of people, it means we will always be learning and adapting and changing and relearning, and failing and rebuilding and learning some more.

We don’t know what we don’t know – am I right?

Now that we get that no one is sucking us in with their sham marketing messages.

Now that we can reframe

Cheap -> Learn with me

Free -> Here’s a start

Easy -> Let me help

What’s next?  Where in fact do we start?

Well for me it’s quite simple.

We need to know 3 things, and until we have these 3 sorted things no amount of marketing will help you do very much.  Sure, you might have a spurt or two, but you won’t build anything sustainable or fulfilling, and you will always feel like you are chasing your tail and hustling for the next paying client.  I don’t know about you, but that’s doesn’t sound easy (or very satisfying).

The 3 things you must have sorted are:

1. Know who you are.
2. Know who you serve.
3. And how to take 1 &2 to market.

Unfortunately, most people want #3 before doing the work of 1 & 2, leaving them exhausted, disillusioned, and often broke.

It’s not necessary – but it takes work, and its takes the right work at the right time.

Can I help you with this – YES

Will it be FREE – No

Will it be EASY – No

Will it be CHEAP – compared to all the years and money and energy that you will waste trying to figure this stuff out, I’m going to say yes, but it may not feel like it right at the start.

Would you like some more?

On Nov 25^th at 7pm EST (USA) I’m going to help you understand these 3 foundations some more.

As a Part of the Holiday Happy Hour (this is 30 days of private practice building awesomeness), I will share with you why these 3 foundations are where we need to start, and help you build a framework for finding out what you need to do next – aka where to start.

Would you like to be a part of this event?  Yes – great.

Then all you need to do is sign up here.

And if not, that’s also OK.

In the next couple of weeks, I will be releasing V2 of what has euphemistically become known as the Jo Muirhead Freedom Guide – where I’ll be explaining this concept in a lot more detail.

If in the meantime you would like to know more about how we can get these 3 foundations solid and strong in your practice from 2018, be sure to book in for a FREE consultation.

Here’s to your success,

Jo