I’ve been actively practicing kinesiology for over six years and dabbling in the modality for twelve years. I’ve been in my business full time now for two years after migrating from a 25 year career in the waste industry. I now have the near perfect balance between work and life. And life with a tweenager is certainly full, so I need a job which provides me flexibility to work around being a mother.
Kinesiology is something I love, so it’s not a job, it’s a joy.
I find that the modality of kinesiology isn’t just a series of techniques incorporating muscle monitoring. It’s a lifestyle, and for me almost a religion! Kinesiology has gifted me the ability to look deeply within and easily connect to my true self and journey path. It’s also been one of the best modalities which provides a foundation of structure for a clinic session, and yet include new information and teachings as I gain them. This modality supports me to remain courageous and face all the stuff for which I need to be responsible for. It also supports me to open my heart space (ie chakra) and increase my capacity for unconditional love.
Even though I am a sole business owner, I absolutely love working for myself – now. The initial days were challenging, because it’s hard work doing everything yourself. I figured out a lot of things along the way. Firstly, I quickly realised that I needed to work hours that aligned to the needs of my family. I see so many of my business coaching clients fall into the trap of booking clients outside of set hours and exhausting themselves, as I once did.
Secondly, I realised that I needed to set my intention to be of service to everyone who walks through my door. In fact, I “call the clients to me” so to speak, using the Laws of Attraction. I write love letters to the universe. I manifest who I want to work with, my ideal client. It took a bit of research, but identifying my niche was vital to be able to create the right copy and marketing strategies to grow my reach.
Sounds a little weird, but in this day and age I believe you can’t create a business and simply expect the clients to come. You have to give a little of yourself in the process to engage that Know-Like-Trust factor before they commit to you. You have to align to the aspects of your dream work life and this includes the clients you ideally want to work with. Call in the clients you know you can be of service to, and, resonate with. Call in the clients who’s journey path you understand. What better way than to align your energy to those who you can best serve?
The sooner you identify your niche of perfect clients, and work through any barriers you may have in relation to that, the sooner they are knocking on your door! Why? Because the sooner you identify your niche the sooner you are aligning your marketing to them. And the sooner you work with them, they will be shouting rave reviews about you to their friends and family – because the changes will be that visible.
Thirdly, I’ve worked through a truckload of negative beliefs when it comes to working for both myself and my perfect client. The old belief that I needed to always be available to clients and never say “no”, and learnt very quickly to set boundaries to ensure my work to life balance was established and maintained. Working set hours that enable me to balance my family life supports that I meet my needs as a mother and wife is important. But more importantly working these limited hours means that I am always energised for everyone entering in my clinical world!
Then there was the discomfort at asking for money at the end of the session, because my self worth was a little wobbly. I loved supervised clinical practice for dealing with this. It also helped that I’d done corporate consulting work for nearly a decade prior, and, understood the need to be renumerated for my time and expertise. Believe it or not, when I first started out, I was still uncomfortable in my own private practice asking for payment!
I’ve overcome an enormous fear of being judged, by becoming publicly visible in my business. And I will even admit to the ocean of frustrated tears which have been shed that were associated with technotarditis. Frankly the depth of technology available to make our lives easier is overwhelming, but you need to understand the basic processes of your business first.
I was recently asked what would you like to share with your fellow Kinesiologists? I love this question and there’s a couple of tips I regularly share with my coaching clients. In the first instance I always tell my clients – Embrace Your Race At Your Pace!
Never get caught in the trap of comparisonitis, which often hits when you’re fatigued or frustrated. Stick to my business plan and assess my statistics. Reflect on other’s peoples work for ideas, graphics, styles of copy, but don’t try to become them. Just be you!
For all practitioners I recommend collaboration so you never feel isolated or alone. It’s important to feel part of a tribe. I’d like to advocate belonging to an association which easily enables collaboration across a broad spectrum. Events like conferences, webinars, online learning, facilitated advertising of registered training providers, regional gatherings are just some of the obvious things that our professional industry associations do.
But think of belonging to your association as a legitimate way to demonstrate to your clientele that you belong to a professional network, which isn’t just an online Facebook group. But an organisation with a charter and mission and dedication to it’s members and your given modality.
Online forums provide fabulous connection but it’s not for everyone in terms of geographic or actual desire access to utlise technology. I get that. So the beauty of an association is that it should provide a range of platforms to engage you – conference, magazine, online presence, as well as support when you need it.
But I always find myself returning to the excitement I felt when I first enrolled in the modality. The excitement of the story that the body can tell us using kinesiology techniques, still to this day blows my mind. I am so grateful for this modality and it’s ability to tap into the human body fields.
In a recent blog (Top Five Biz Tips) I shared my top five tips for embracing and building your business. A summary is below:
- Ensure you meet your needs first.
- Accept the ‘to do’ list will never end, and just continue to plug away.
- Get a mentor.
- Have a strategic plan.
- Be prepared.
With a little planning, and an open mind to confront your fears, you too can achieve anything you set your mind to when it comes to running your business. You can choose to change and bloom from within.
Embrace your race at your pace as you chase your rainbows
