Today, I found 3 dying avocados in the fridge, underneath a bag of Shiitake mushrooms, some Brussels sprouts and the remains of one of those enormous packages of greens that I buy —I never seem to realize that it’s too much for two people to consume before they die a very natural death.
The greens, I mean, not the people.
The problem with the avocados is that I buy 5 because they’re on sale, and while I’m waiting for just the right moment to make guacamole they’re ripening into compost.
Even worse things happen when you need clients and wait too long to take action…
Recently, I’ve been doing some research into why you don’t see the words “successful” and “somatic practitioner” very often in the same sentence.
I was startled by what I discovered from the data
Over 80% of struggling hands-on practitioners who participated share a lot of preferences about how they build their practices, including how they make choices. The vast majority of practitioners require a lot of information and a long time to feel comfortable that they’re making the right decision.
This is one of the reasons that current marketing practices often feel “pushy” to somatic practitioners. If you’ve just begun to consider getting help, there’s no way you’re going to be ready to commit yourself by the end of whatever webinar you happen to be on, no matter how famous the “guru” is.
At the same time, when I talk with practitioners who have asked for a session to explore working together to help them get more clients, I often hear that the time isn’t quite right. Some of the reasons? —
- I’ll wait until I have more clients so I can pay for the course.
- I don’t have enough time to learn something new or work on developing anything right now.
- The holidays are coming, and I don’t want anyone to be disappointed because I took the time away from doing all the things I usually do.
- I don’t have enough experience yet.
- I don’t have enough confidence yet.
- I don’t think anything can help me right now.
- I need to pay for my daughter’s school trip.
There will never be a perfect time
I’m sure you could make a case for every one of these reasons… but when those objections are taken care of, there will be more — because there will never be a perfect time. There has to be a balance — because if you look hard enough, you can always find a reason NOT to act.
What will move you forward is finding a reason TO act.
If you’ve read my previous 2 posts and answered the questions, then you know what you want and whether you’re moving toward it — and you’re ready for the third question — about finding that reason to act —
By when do you want to have enough clients?
Nothing happens overnight. If you want to change your practice, it’s going to take some time… you can’t decide today that you want more clients and get them tomorrow.
Yet it often seems that the longer it takes to make a decision, the more important it is to get the results right away. This is particularly true in the realm of getting clients and it’s unrealistic most of the time, especially for somatic practitioners — whose process tends to be very different from the people who do decide to commit during the course of a webinar.
If you’re like most practitioners — if you require lots of information and time to decide to make a shift — asking yourself questions that focus your attention differently may help you to get the right information more quickly. Often, it’s easier to ‘reverse-engineer’ from your desired results back through the actions you need to take in order to get those results.
If you’re stuck on how to answer “By when do you want to have enough clients?” — dig into the past and explore the future to get deeper insight:
- How long has your practice been the way it is?
- What specific things have you tried, to change it?
- What are the concrete results you’ve had from taking those actions?
- What are the obstacles you’ve encountered?
- What’s your plan for getting past them?
- Imagine the practice you want a year from now… and then 5 years from now.
- Imagine what it will be like a year from now — 5 years from now — if you’re still getting the same results you’ve been getting.
When you have a clear idea of where you are, how you arrived and where you want to go, it’s easier to get there. Knowing when you want to arrive makes it possible to decide when you need to start!
The next step
If you need more clients, start now to think about how you’re going to get them.
- What are you ready to do now, and what do you want to change?
- Which things do you need time to think about?
- What information do you need to make the right decision?
- How will you get the right information?
- How much time do you need to think about it?
If the time is now and you don’t want to do it alone, let’s have a talk to see if we’re a fit. Click here to make an appointment!
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