Hey fabulous health professionals.

I want to pose a question:

What is the value in why?

Isn’t the “what” or the “how” more practical? Won’t those things get us the results we want? More clients, more success, more money?

Well, the “what” and “how” do work, for a little while. But the why – it’s what keeps the wheels on.

When we start a private practice we do so because we want a greater sense of freedom and flexibility. And after a while, we realise that the pursuit of money isn’t enough.

So we start looking for fulfilment. And the things that shake us in this journey tend to come up when we hit the rocky times – no one is immune to this. What I’ve noticed is that we tend to go back into a place of selling our services as commodities.

But healthcare is not a commodity.

A health and wellness outcome is not a commodity. We don’t build widgets.

And I know there is a push to make health professionals as efficient and procedural and time-effective as possible. But… we’re dealing with people’s lives.

People don’t want to be a commodity. 

We’ve seen the news stories of people being treated like numbers by a company that was supposed to have their back. This is the last thing our customers and clients want when they work with us.

And let’s face it – if you track back to why you went to uni in the first place, why you opened your own practice – you didn’t do it to sell a commodity.

You did it to help people get their lives back.

So how does this reflect with how we build our practices, or what happens when things get a little wobbly?

Well, what I see is that clinicians go back to “what”: “I want to know what to do and I want to know how to do it.”

But that’s not enough. We need to be more sophisticated than that. We have a very discerning population of people purchasing our services. And if we focus on the “what” and the “how” then every consumer is going to shop for the cheapest and easiest option.

I think the last thing we envisioned for ourselves when we went into private practice was “cheap and easy”.

Loyal, raving fans come to us for our “why”. 

This is not a new concept. Simon Sinek has eloquently explained the importance of why in “Start with Why” and his message is as important as ever for health professionals:

If you start with why, then your clients will know that you have their best interests at heart. Every client who comes through the door will have the experience of being cared for and genuinely made to feel like the belong. They will know – this is home.

And I know so many of us want to built this sort of this practice and develop these relationships with our clients.

So I encourage you – go back to your why. Why did you choose this path? What is it that makes you get up and keep going every day? 

And if you’ve lost touch with your why, I encourage you to sit down and remember you were on a mission – what was it? What was it that employment with another person was not fulfilling in you? 

When you reconnect to what it was that you wanted to do to change people’s lives… just watch your marketing, your sales and your team culture start to evolve.

Come back to the why and don’t fall into the trap of just reporting on the what and the how. 

You’re bigger than that. 

You were built for more than that.

Here’s to your success,

ABOUT JO

Jo Muirhead is a Rehabilitation Counsellor, private practice owner and mentor to clinicians looking to find freedom and success in their private practice.

You can learn more about Jo here.