https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw
As an organiser of the Australian Naturopathic Summit I wasn’t immune to the content. In fact, like so many other practitioners we keep hearing from, I think I am forever changed…and that’s not just my adrenals talking!! All the speakers’ insights continue to gestate in my brain. Suddenly with running narratives from Leah, Jason, Charmaine, Cyndi etc. my head and my workspace seem to be not such lonely places. This sense of a community that we could all take home with us, is just as we had hoped for.
One voice that frequently pops up in my personal post summit narrative is that of Charmaine Dennis (co-founder of The Fertile Ground Health Group), who so eloquently talked about the business of being a naturopath (or any other integrative health professional). She suggested that the health bloggers are currently being more effective at attracting and holding the attention of the general public than us qualified praccies and proposed that this results from bloggers being clear and able to communicate their ‘WHY’ in contrast to the majority of professionals who are stuck on focussing and promoting their ‘WHAT’.
Don’t know what on earth I am talking about?? Well when you (yes I am talking to you!) put together your marketing material or you have to explain to someone new about your job, what information do you include? So many times it’s along the lines of…I am a naturopath/nutritionist/health practitioner, I have X quals, I use XY modalities, I treat XYZ conditions. This is all about the ‘WHAT’ you do with a little of the ‘HOW’ you do it thrown in for good measure. But when and with whom do we share the WHY? In stark contrast to this, if you take the time to check out some of the most popular health bloggers as well as some of our most successful colleagues and frequently you’ll find the emphasis is flipped.
While as professionals with similar, if not identical, qualifications our WHAT can be very same same, however , our WHY is unique. So WHY [pardon the pun :)] would we not make this the focus and our point of difference?
Our WHY is the key ingredient in our appeal to clients/patients/employers/ collaborators…anyone in business we are trying to attract.
Anyway, all this talk about finding your WHY has got me thinking a lot about my own – as it should do. Your WHY isn’t static. It doesn’t stay the same throughout the duration of your entire career, so it’s good to regularly go back and review and ask yourself, “WHY this, WHY now?”. The time you spend clarifying your WHY is one of the most important investments you can make in your business so don’t skimp on this. Set aside the time, do it now.
Charmaine recommended this great TedX talk about this – so if this is all Martian-speak to you, check it out & commit the 18 minutes (or just 5 mins to watch the abridged version shown above!) And by the way, if you’re feeling like you missed out because you were unable to attend the ANS and I am just rubbing salt in your wounds, we are currently putting the finishing touches on the recordings which should finally become available in the next few weeks – keep watching this space!