Private Practice Success Newsletter

August 2005, by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, PCC (Professional Certified Coach)
www.privatepracticesuccess.com

One Minute Summary: One way to generate clients is for you, the therapist, coach, healer, or consultant to get out into the community and talk up your work. But to do this, you need to have a comfortable and natural way to assert yourself as a business person. Read further to learn a simple skill set to help make this easier.

Asserting Yourself as a Business Person

One problem with a private practice is just how private or hidden it can become.

Privacy works for you in regards to autonomy and being your own boss, but against you when you want others to know that your business exists. As a result, some practices that offer valuable, important services remain an unintended secret to those who could benefit from them most.

One way to be less of a secret is for you, the therapist, coach, healer, or consultant to get out into the community and talk up your work. But to do this, you need to have a comfortable and natural way to assert yourself as a business person.

I see many talented and gifted colleagues fall short in this area, due to personal shyness or timidity when it comes to speaking about their work. They say:

“I feel that if I talk too much about myself it’s like boasting, and I was taught not to do that.”

“I am more comfortable listening than speaking about myself.”

“I go to social and professional gatherings and wait for a chance to bring up what is new in my practice, but I can wait all night for an opening. The right moment to speak up never seems to come.”

“I don’t say much about my work because I am just like any other (therapist, healer, coach, consultant.) There really isn’t anything special about me. No one would care.”

Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it's dark. (Zen Proverb)

Launching ourselves into a conversation with the intention of trying to let others know more about our services can feel risky and complicated. But business assertiveness is a learnable skill. Let’s look at some ways to make it easier.

First, recognize that speaking up about your work is not an ego driven exercise. Instead, it is a way of creating synergy, to be part of the energetic flow of business, connecting needs and services. Let people in your professional and social circles understand your services and your value in helping others.

To minimize your discomfort when asserting yourself, connect to a larger purpose. Which people do you want to offer your services to? What might you help to foster or develop by speaking up? Who do you help, and why?

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. (Ray Bradbury)

A therapist in my town is an expert at working with families in trouble. Families that work with her make progress and become happier and more loving. With all of the stresses on families today, one would think that she would have a waiting list, but instead she struggles to keep her practice full.

Why? Because so few people know about her successes. She is wonderful at what she does, but so modest and unassuming that she never speaks about her work with the clarity or conviction that would help those in need find their way to her door.

One day, I asked her if she had a success story. A success story takes a listener inside your work, to not only say but show what you do. Here are the basics of a success story:

1) Use a composite of several clients or an unrecognizable, unnamed client with a generic problem. Minimize any details that would break confidentiality.

Example: “I am excited about some recent success in my work. I worked with a family that was stuck in a cycle of anger. The parents constantly argued with each other and criticized the children. The children got mad back at the parents by stonewalling, refusing to talk or reveal anything of importance. Everyone was angry and hurt.”

2) Highlight what you did specifically that helped.

“I started by setting the stage for better listening. So often in families, members complain that no one really hears what they are saying. With this family, I emphasized basic skills involved in listening. I taught the family how to minimize their defensiveness and stop the constant criticisms, to just hear each other out. The developments from this one change, listening without defending, were profound for everyone.”

3) Add some evidence-based results.

“After a few months of sessions, the family reported that the daily arguing stopped. They were now talking to each other. Sometimes the parents admitted that they were taken aback at what they heard from each other and their children, but as one parent said, ‘At least we now hear each other. All it takes is being willing to calm myself down and really open up my heart. My spouse talks to me more. My kids talk to me. I feel like I am part of a family again.’

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. (James Bryant Conant)

Telling the success story made a difference for this therapist, who now understood how to assert herself as a business person. She can talk about her work in an interesting and honest way, and weave her success story into a professional conversation.

Ready to try this?

Craft a success story to emphasize the constructive and positive elements in your work and the real benefits your services make to your clients. Respect confidentiality. Highlight what you did specifically that helped. Explain the good results in specific ways. Practice telling your success story in a conversational manner this month with others.

Now when someone asks how your work is going, you will now have something different to share.

Upcoming Teleclasses

Many of you have asked when the next classes will start. We will gear up for classes again in October. We have been delayed in starting them due to last minute work on the current book, "The Business and Practice of Coaching" (see below) which is also a bit delayed and will be published and sent out (I am promised!!) by Sept 1, 2005. Exciting news is that the Behavioral Sciences Book Club has chosen the book as an upcoming selection.

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Books by Lynn Grodzki, published by WW Norton. To order, click on each book.

	The Business and Practice of Coaching By Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen (Summer 2005) An estimated 30,000 coaches have entered the coaching profession in the past five years, but unfortunately, the majority report they are unable to earn a living wage from their coaching services. This book shows you how, using a coaching approach to the business of coaching.
	Building Your Ideal Private Practice By Lynn Grodzki (2000) The best-selling guide to what you need to do and who you need to be in order to have a highly profitable, personally satisfying private practice. Often called the "private practice bible" this book has become a resource for tens of thousands of your colleagues.
	The New Private Practice:Therapist-Coaches Share Stories, Strategies and Advice Edited by Lynn Grodzki (2002) A groundbreaking look at the profession of coaching through the eyes of 16 successful therapist-coaches who tell you how to become a coach, what to charge, and show you how they coach their clients.
	12 Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook By Lynn Grodzki (2003) This planned, motivational workbook will help you build the practice you desire. The workbook incorporates fresh ideas, new exercises, further skill sets and much more to give you a direct experience of being carefully coached by Lynn, month-by-month, for a full year.

More next time,

lynn@privatepracticesuccess.com
See the website for additional articles, information about individual coaching, and upcoming classes.