A Tale Of Two Clients

Client A: “I just had my biggest income month ever!”

Client B: “My practice is full, but now I’m giving away a third of my income.”

Let me back up:

Waiting is hard.

Both clients are therapists who were leaving agencies to start their private practices, both of them hired me to be their coach, and both of them did the work. They implemented the strategies we discussed together, they worked on the mindset-shifts they needed to make, and then… they encountered the Big Hill.

There is usually a lag-time between the marketing efforts you make, and the actual payoff. I liken it to a roller coaster. You’re all excited to get on the coaster, especially as it “launches” and takes a few mild curves, but then you start climbing the Big Hill.

Tick. Tick. Tick…

The roller coaster clicks and lurches as you slowly move upward. Imagine this hill going on and on. Imagine thinking, “This is supposed to be a roller coaster, but we’re going incredibly slowly! This is boring!”

All the while, you’re just building potential-energy. Every tick upwards is going to make that eventual free-fall super fun.

Every effort you make in your business is a “tick” up the Hill. If you don’t know you’re on a hill, if you lose patience and stop trusting the process, you may want to give up.

Both clients expressed their concern to me. “Jane, I’m doing all the things we discussed. I’m worried. I don’t have new clients calling yet. Are you sure I’m doing everything I need to do?” We discussed the lag-time, the challenges of making small steps and waiting, and I encouraged them to keep “ticking” forward up the hill.

Client B hated the tension of that lag time. She joined a group-practice so that she could fill her client-roster quickly. They sent her clients.

Good news?

Yes, but she called me and said, “Now I’m getting flooded with calls from ideal clients from my earlier marketing efforts, but I’m already full from the clients the group practice sent me— so I have to them away. And I have to give 1/3 of my income back to the practice as part of my contract.”

Client A suffered through the tension of the lag-time. She kept herself occupied with planning future marketing efforts. She worried. (Maybe she even vented to others that I was full of it; the lag is painful).

And then she went over the tipping point on that roller coaster. “I had my biggest income-month ever!”

Waiting is hard. Continuing to put in the mundane effort, doing those baby steps, when the payoff isn’t happening yet? That’s hard. You might even be “screaming in your heart.”

Remember, not every part of the roller coaster is fun. That’s normal, and that’s part of the process.

“Wheeee!”