It's Halloween . . . and time to face the fears of 2020!

The locus of this fall’s fears . . . working with metal saws to build our new “hoop house.” (See below)

Halloween! So let’s talk about fear.

It’s Halloween. Or All-Hallows’-Eve if you prefer. Time for cute costumes, “haunted” houses, tricks, and a little good ‘ole fright. Public radio is playing spooky music (from Psycho) and reviewing the scariest movies. Parents are talking about their kid’s costume choices. All is abnormally normal. Maybe not exactly normal, after all, the Nationals won the World Series, but I digress.

I was on a video chat earlier this week with some professionals talking about contracting and consulting. I mentioned that I assumed when I started that other professionals were more comfortable than I was in acting as an entrepreneur and “putting themselves out there” doing marketing and sales, since I had no background in this area. But, it turns out, I was not that different from most professionals. Once again I was reminded of this as we talked as one prevalent theme I heard in the questions I was asked was . . . fear.

I told them that one of my biggest challenges when I started more than 20 years ago was getting through my own fears. Fear that I didn’t know enough yet, that I wouldn’t be able to find customers, that I would somehow fail. Building confidence, isn’t some big secret. But, somehow we believe the route to success is a lack of fear. No. Success isn’t convincing yourself that the fear is irrational—first, it’s not entirely irrational; and second, the part that is irrational—“catastrophic thinking”—can’t be fixed by reasoning. The person typically already knows that what they are facing is just fear and they themselves, and others as well, have already told them that their fear is irrational. What works is finding ways to successfully take reasonable “leaps of faith” and succeedi

Learning to Use the Saw

I use examples (like the metal chop saw above) to ask professionals I coach, what will make my fear of using this new, and potentially dangerous, tool diminish. Will it being reminding myself that I have used lots of other power tools? Being reassured that “it’s not that hard” and “I can do it?” Maybe watching You Tube videos of how to use the tool? Reading the manual?

All of these help, minimally. (Actually, reading the manual introduced new fears . . . like the blade cracking and flying apart) But these steps don’t drive away the fear. What does? Using the saw.

So, on this day of Goblins, Witches, and Fright, and as you prepare for 2020—embrace fear. Press forward. Focus on what comes after the fear (like the hoop house, see below) that will provide service and joy—not to mention revenue for my wife’s business—for many years.

Use what ever resources you need to help bolster your courage to take the next reasonable risk. In the end, it is highly likely that the benefits of your success will outweigh the terror of the moment.

Success! Here is one of the framed ends I built with the new saw. Kind of look forward to using it . . . now.

If you practice like no one else, your practice can be like no one else!

Some of our giveaways I got to share with my colleague at coffee. (Graphic Design by Andrew Miller (andhegames.com and andhedrew.com)

If you practice like everyone else, your practice will be like everyone else!

Throughout my almost 30 years working in the health care field I have had great colleagues. These experts provide critical services for individuals, couples, and families. They are specialists—true experts—in their scope of practice and I happily refer to, collaborate with, and respect them for their work.

However . . .

Considering the “State of the Art”

Colleagues in our field as a group, perhaps like most industries, generally talk, month in and month out, about the same repetitive topics . . . referrals, going “fee only” (or dumping insurance), recruiting new professionals, insurance contracts, and procedures or techniques they are learning or implementing. Go to coffee with many in the behavioral health industry and you are sure to wind up talking about these issues.

There’s nothing, at all, wrong with that of course.. These are the daily concerns of the typical practice and the variables that owners/providers need to focus on to be successful. Many are happy to confine their “work life” to these issues but some of us are not.

For the “others” these topics, while necessary to deal with, are often redundant, task-focused, conversations that—like chores—need to be done but rarely result in a “bounce in the step” after the conversation. After almost three decades in the industry, while these continue to be necessary discussions, engaged in regularly, I find myself more interested in conversations about the national melodrama of politics, the latest cool product (currently Darn Tough socks), new technologies, or woodworking projects. Maybe you can relate?

A different practice

I was reflecting on this after a recent coffee meeting with a colleague. No, not because the conversation was a better version of the typical topics, quite the opposite, because it wasn’t—at least not the vast majority of the meeting. A meeting that I left feeling energized, excited, and ready to push my business forward. Why? What was different? What was different is we weren’t just talking about the same-ole-same-ole topics.

My colleage isn’t just practicing like everyone else. He is more entrepreneurial that the average clinician.

Through serendipity and the encouragement of others less risk-aversive, I have learned, despite my natural tendencies toward the opposite, to do the same. So our conversation wasn’t about insurance, referrals, recruitment and all the old repetitive topics. Instead, the conversation was about an upcoming training we are doing out of state, demonstrating for him a game we newly licensed to use in our training, possible opportunities with a local manufacturing enterprise, and discussions about developing our own new software games for training. All factors of my practice not being defined by the typical “private practice” label.

Sustained changes

This week, under this broader umbrella of Human Systems Consulting, we will be billing an engineering firm for coaching. Signing a training contract with a government agency to use games to train leaders on teamwork skills. Continuing our monthly trainings of other professionals on becoming consultants. Talking to a non-profit about the status of a 13 year old contract to determine if it will continue as is, change, or be terminated. Continue discussions about developing a communications/teamwork game with a software developer. None of this directly related to my full time private practice as a mental health professional.

If it sounds like work, it is. Is it But its work, I find, that invigorates. It’s not boring. It’s new. It’s mine. No one else, outside my team is doing what we are doing. It continually challenges me to grow and expand my learning, my skills, and, assumably, my value to systems who need some help. It also protects from some of the inherent risks in healthcare. All factors that makes the private practice less anxious, more sustainable, flexible, and versatile.

Normative vs. transformative

Now, if you tend toward the stable, comfortable, personality that enjoys routing, likes tweaking and improving know systems, and are perfectly happy with continued discussions listed in the first scenario—then good for you! You likely are not looking for something different or more. However, those who crave learning new things, challenging themselves to do more, want new vistas or horizons to explore . . . even if you are good at putting up with the first scenario . . . then this latter scenario is much more invigorating. In my experience, it is an antidote to burnout and makes you more enthused about both.

What would you like your practice to look like if you could choose to do whatever you wanted?

What services or products would you be excited to provide?

What’s stopping you?

Contracting Quick Tip . . . for the good guys and gals out there.

Published by Lubomirkin on Unsplash

Today I had, yet another, conversation about how to establish a price for some contract work. As always, in my world of nice folks who didn't grow up in the business world, I found the conversation filled with fear about asking too much.

Despite having been told that the job was already bid out at a price probably twice what they would ask for the job . . . the doubts about losing the work, fearing the customer to think they were trying to take advantage of them if they asked too much, and a lack of information about creating a fee structure . . . was driving the price down to the point I questioned if it was really worth doing.

Once again, I found myself talking about the costs of Labor and Overhead, the risks of underpricing and never becoming a real viable business, explaining how a profit margin is like insurance for the business protecting it against risk, and encouraging, consoling, directing, these nice young people into charging the full value of what they were providing.

"Don't cheat yourself," I said. "Develop a real price structure that can give you the confidence that what you are asking for is fair and then stick with it." "Don't give in to fear."

Afterwards, I though to myself, "I should have told them to take a picture of their newborn and post it on the computer" where they were writing their proposal. I should have asked them, "Is it fair to your son to give away your labor and give away the future support you can provide for him?" Too many good people sacrifice in this way.

I think original advice is what they really need . . . a well-thought out price structure to boost their confidence and ward against the "push back" of customers wanting to get a "deal." But until then, maybe it's time to post those pictures next to the computer.

Bryan

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Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.