SIDESTEPPING THE ROLLER COASTER IN PRIVATE PRACTICE
(January/February 2005 Issue)

At 60 miles per hour a diesel locomotive will smash through a 3-foot thick wall of concrete like a knife through butter. But sitting in the station, that same locomotive with 4500 horsepower can be paralyzed by a block of wood under one wheel. Momentum.

A thriving private practice has momentum. A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Everything you do in your practice can synergistically enhance everything else you do. A big client load makes you efficient with clients, and motivates you to tackle "client stalled" problems -- especially when you're working with enough clients that you see a pattern with 3 or 4 of them. You're intently focused on their success.

That intense client focus, in turn, makes an impression on the candidates you're working with and they, in turn, refer you to their associations, church groups, schools, etc., to speak. You deliver 2 or 3 speeches a month, and each speech you do gives you energy and poise; because you're doing them regularly, you don't get stale or out of practice. Those speeches, in turn, bring in C.A.P. sessions.

People in your C.A.P. sessions feel how busy and active your practice is and instead of you "selling" them to work with you, you have what we call posture: "I don't need your business." People want what they can't have. Your prospects are thinking, "Wow I hope the waiting list is not too long." Networking happens naturally. You network with the public through calls because your calling comes from natural "let's clarify the speaking topic," or "what's happening in your campaign" calls, so you don't have to do OBECs [Out Bound Educational Calls] artificially.

Momentum.
On the other hand... A stalled practice it so tough to get going, it can hit a death spiral. Panic about money drives your interactions with people, and because prospects smell that you "need" their business, they're not as attracted to you. Fewer speeches. The telephone looks like a cold-calling black hole. Since you have more time than money, you spend it organizing paper clips, filing meaningless papers [I exaggerate, I hope], over preparing for the one speech you've booked, hand-holding clients that should be pushed out of the nest. The life-giving practice-building actions dwindle and your practice withers.

Did you ever notice that "momentum" and "inertia" are opposite names for the same physical phenomenon?
• Momentum: A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by some outside force.
• Inertia: A body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by some outside force.

How to you change your practice Inertia into Momentum where you treasure every moment?

Here are four momentum-maintaining principles: Vision, Support, Plan, Measure.

Vision
No one is excited to jump out of bed just to report for duty. Maslow says that once our basic needs for food, shelter, and warmth are handled, we naturally aspire to belonging, love and affection, esteem, aesthetics, knowledge, and self-actualization. When I have clients imagine a perfect job 5 years from now, they always fill it with opportunities for relationships around those needs. You need a vision for yourself Here's a "compelling vision" I borrowed from career coach and trainer Terri Levine
I recommend her site and materials: www.terrilevine.com.

Here's what her start at a compelling vision sounds like: "It's November, 2005. I just woke up and I'm so excited. First of all, I am thankful to have another day on the planet, second of all, it's beautiful and sunny and I can smell the flowers from my garden. I can breathe in the scent of lavender. As I stretch and begin to get up, I am just so grateful that I have such wonderful warmth and energy in my home surrounding me. And I can't wait to meet with my first client of the day. That client just radiates peace and joy and makes me think of a soft wonderful Beethoven symphony playing in the background. And, today, what I'm going to be doing is to continue to write three or four pages from my powerful book that's coming together with ease, joy, and delight and a lot of inspiration. And I'm not even typing it, I'm actually speaking it and it's typing itself. And it's so joyful..."

Too gooey for you? Okay, but keep in mind, Terri went from zero to $450,000 annualized income from a career coaching practice in three months.

Of course you will write/speak your vision, but an additional very powerful way to express it is with a "treasure map." This is a collage of pictures, words, images representing your 5 year goals. It'll take an evening to put together; start by collecting magazines and pictures for a few weeks. When it's done, hang it up in your office. It works.

Support
If you do this work all by yourself, you'll get stuck, lose momentum. Talking out your ideas and problems, setting challenging, measurable, achievable goals, and contributing to someone else will keep you going when you'd otherwise be stuck. Minimally, find one or two other colleagues whom you meet (even by teleconference) once a month or more. You'll find these described in the classic Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He calls it your Mastermind Group. People who belong to my Guild of Career Excellence have that built in to their practice.

Plan: Marketing Plan
Without a plan, you'll ride a roller coaster of momentum feast or famine. Your practice will get busy, you'll neglect marketing, 3-6 months later that neglect will show up as no new clients. Then out of
panic, you'll get back on the marketing wagon and push push push until you're really busy again -- then the cycle repeats. In the next issue of the Career Planning and Adult Development Network Newsletter I will outline an effective marketing plan. For now, make a plan you can stick with. How many, what kind of marketing activities will you do every month. Then stick to that plan. In fact, measure it. Did I say measure?

Measure
There's an old management philosophy that goes: if you want more of something, measure it. By having check off lists, records of your business activities (how many C.A.P. sessions, call backs, and new clients; average marginal net worth of each client, etc.) you'll be able to see progress -- or lack of it -- in black and white. So keep track of the numbers in your business. Especially keep track of your monthly marketing activities so you never fall behind on that.

Consistent marketing means consistent business. Sporadic marketing makes for a roller-coaster business. That's okay for an amusement park, but a thriving private practice shouldn't turn you upside down and make your stomach drop.

Jack Chapman is author of:
Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute
He is a career consultant in private practice and runs ongoing support and training teleconference sessions for career consultants in private practice.
He can be reached at 847-251-4727 or jkchapman@aol.com