Whose Game Show are YOU Playing In?
The scene is set.
The black cavernous TV studio is packed to the rafters. The spot lights are all on YOU.
The cheering crowd is on your side. Your knobbly knees wobble. Your unstoppable beating heart thunders in your chest. Your soft palms sweat.
It's the last question of the game.
You stand to win practice success in 2009 delivered on a silver platter. The atmosphere is buzzing like a happy honey bee in Mz Margz lavender bushes.
As the crowd suddenly go silent..............................the spotlight hits the cheesy game show host and you hear their voice say: "True or False"? (Followed by a dramatic game show host silence)....................
"January is a quiet time when therapists, coaches and healers make no money"? ...................(game show host wrings the last possible piece of game show silence) ..........................."TRUE OR FALSE" %$firstname$% ?
The spotlight returns to you. The crowd are all nodding in agreement. Your head spins. Your gut wrenches. You know it's a trick question but you only have 5 seconds to answer. The crowd are still nodding.
Finally you bend under pressure from the crowd and shout TRUE!
You can hear your hair grow in the silence until the crowd see the right answer flash behind you. They draw breath, a VERY LOUD BUZZER fills your ears, lights flash, chaos fills the studio, the crowd are on their feet screaming DUMP %$firstname$% ! DUMP %$firstname$% ! and before you can react someone pulls the big handle on the trap door you are standing on and you disappear unceremoniously into a vat of cold green jello slime!!!
The crowd go wild!
You pick green jello out of every orifice for the next six weeks!
Is YOUR Mindset Blocking YOUR Success?
January is a TRADITIONALLY quiet time but we here at Abundant Private Practices are by no means traditional!! In fact traditional is a swear word here along with the C word CAN'T and the S word SHOULD!
People on my database are different from the negative nellies, nay sayers and downers of the world. We are the positive ones - aren't we?
Don't we know our thoughts and our mindset drive our outcomes?
Don't we know we only need to change our thoughts and things start to happen?
Well why would we then believe that there is nothing we can do from 1 December to 31 January to attract clients and make our business successful?
The answer is because someone else told us that is the truth!
I'll bet a dumping in a vat of green jello that the people who programmed that into your heads are in full time employment. They get four weeks paid annual leave a year and they get one chance to have time off. WE ARE NOT LIKE THAT!!! When you have a successful practice of your own, a) you kiss goodbye to paid annual leave and b) you can schedule your own time off.
I live in a tourist town that specialises in health and wellbeing. All the big spa's report the same thing, Boxing Day till now is one of their busiest times of year. Why because people are bored and because they can!
Right now there are a heap of people out there vacationing and have time on their hands to come and see you. You don't need to live in a tourist town to attract them, but your message does have to be enticing.
Right now there are people out there who have made New Years Resolutions to change their personal behaviour. What do most people on my database do? Help people change their personal behaviour!! DUH - do you think you could help them?
YOU CAN if you match your message to their needs at this time.
I've had a great reminder of this when I meet Grant Connolly, the founder of The ZPoint Personal Peace Program last month. I met Grant in person at the Breakfast and Beer Café in Daylesford on the 18th January 2008. Grant's lovely assistant Lisa Brennan had driven him all the way up from Melbourne especially to meet me, a four hour round trip.
I had just hung up the phone from my very last teleclass of the year one hour before I walked into the café.
Grant had recently jetted in from Canada so he had no concept that myself and Australia were already shutting for the holidays. He was still working and although I didn't plan to be - suddenly so was I! I'd have to say I was exhausted and tired and ready to put my feet up but I was still up for opportunity to knock.
Learning Lesson #1: Opportunity is everywhere at every time of the day and night or season
One of my mentors has a saying that goes "the opportunity of a lifetime comes by about every two weeks - you just got to be open to it".
So back to Breakfast and Beer, Daylesford's only European Bier Café where I learnt all about the ZPoint for Peace Process over a cold bottle of ginger beer.
The simplest description of ZPoint would be to say it's "a one word mantra".
My Dad died some years ago on Boxing Day of a terminal illness and the holiday season evokes memories that hold a deep charge. So I put ZPoint to a big test and cued in my one word mantra "merrychristmas" (I cheated and had two cue words, I just took out the space - don't tell Grant!)
I used ZPoint to help me to deal with Christmas and it worked really well. In fact it even got me through a hymn singing session I hadn't quite bargained for and sure enough as soon as the tears welled up I "merrychristmas"d may way through the singing and got to feel it as a happy thing not a sad thing. The cue word helped change the mindset and reminded me how we are often stopped in our tracks by our mindset, even when we "know" this stuff.
It's not enough to KNOW it - we have to DO it
So the time at Breakfast and Beer was highly productive, when I would rather have been sitting on the back porch staring into space! Good on Grant for pulling me out of the Cute House and into opportunity that day. I'd have to share that I got Grant back - he had just got back from a long plan flight and thought he was heading straight back to Melbourne. We instead made him stay and do ZPoint at our Daylesford SLaM (Spirituality, Leadership and Management) event that evening!
But can you see a pattern here?
Learning Lesson #2: Meet people in person!! A big key to success is just showing up so people can experience you in real time. Keep showing up even if you are tired and weary. Keep putting the message out even though you would rather be at home with your feet up.
So there I was in Beer and Breakfast setting up programs that any sane person would tell me wouldn't get anyone interested in January. Right now Grant and I have 50 people already registered for a free teleclass (which of course you are also invited to) and we are only a few days into the New Year. I have sent ONE grassroots email to get that many people signed and the big push from external sources hasn't started yet.
Will the class fill - you bet!
Why will it fill? Because we did the work the week before the holidays started when everyone was slacking off.
Why has this happened? Because Grant has no concept that the country is shut. Our culture hasn't yet impacted him. It is not in his mindset. As far as he is concerned it is business as usual because it is winter where he comes from and they don't pack up and go to the beach. It is refreshing energy to be around.
Learning Lesson #3: Hang out with people who pull you UP not down
Am I saying never have a holiday and never have time out from your practice? NO - I'm a big advocate of self care for therapists and that includes loads of holidays.
What I really want you to "get" is that opportunities are everywhere but you need to be in a mindset to take them. This time of year doesn't have to a downer - as always its your choice which way it goes.
The Top 10 Ways To Re-Charge Your Practice at New Years
- Read the 90 Day Challenge (YES AGAIN). It will give you new inspiration; new understanding and you will take it in at a deeper level. If you have been wise enough to purchase the Practice Building Success System - read that as well.
- Get clear what you want to achieve this year, create a plan and start implementing it - NOW
- Write your future letter and include some outrageous opportunities that will stretch you
- Design some product bundles that are different from your usual offerings
- Write grass roots marketing letters and send them to your database (tell me you have one!) advising your people about the different products. Old clients are the easiest to get back because they already know and love you!
- Make it easy for people to experience you - find ways to be seen in person
- Don't be too fussy about what you are offering! You don't usually hear me say that but when things are lean you can't be picky but do make the most of the opportunities around you. Last week two massage therapists set up on the footpath in front of their practice, metres from the Daylesford Sunday Market, selling seated neck and shoulder massage for a $1 a minute under a shady tree (they got $20 off me!)
- Use YOUR tools to get your mindset right
- Learn a NEW TOOL to keep your mindset right - come and join Grant and I on a free teleclass on the 14th January 2009, 8pm Melbourne Time - be quick its filling fast! Register here
- CREATE YOUR OWN GAMESHOW - don't allow the thoughts of others to influence you!
I was thinking of running a teleclass called "How to Successfully Pick Green Jello Slime out of Every Orifice" but I know you all would have shouted FALSE!!
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The Business Bootcomp for Emerging Workshop Leaders
This is the power of a strong WHO and WHAT. When people can clearly understand WHO you work with and WHAT you do for them, then you too will start getting these type of opportunities landing in your lap. 
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