Your Pinnacle Practice
December 2003
Welcome to YOUR PINNACLE PRACTICE!
A monthly practice- building newsletter for "go-getters" and
pioneering private practice professionals.
Each month we bring you the best information and resources we can find
to help you build your ideal practice and achieve the pinnacle
of success in your field.
If you are recieving this from a colleague and wish to subscribe click
here
CONTENTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Farewell from Ken
I recently heard someone say, “My motto for this year is ‘…it’s
all about me in 2003…’, and my motto for next year is ‘…I’m
going for more in 2004…’” I am sure that I don’t
need to remind you that 2004 is right around the corner, but let me ask
you a question instead: Are you ready for more in 2004?
- Do you have a vision of where you are going to?
- Do you have the resources to get there?
- Have you discovered your passion, your calling, and your personal
truth?
The month of December, as busy as it can get, is a most wonderful time
to do some reflecting and planning for this next year. Remember, people
never plan to fail; they just sometimes fail to plan.
For several years now I have created a “vision map” during the
month of December for the next year. This vision map consists of a collection
of pictures, words and symbolisms that represent what I want brought into
my life. After placing these items onto poster-board I then hang the vision
map up in my living space so I can constantly be reminded of what I am manifesting
in my life.
I have been amazed at what has shown up for me over the years of doing this
exercise. I invite you to do the same. If fact, you can have a vision map
party with friends and colleagues and feed off each other’s energy.
December is also a month to do some reflection of this past year. Has it
brought what you desired? Do you feel fulfilled? Have you followed your
passion? Are you where you truly want to be? If so, then that is great…I
commend you. If not, then I encourage you to be deliberate and conscious
of where you are going and how you are going about getting there.
I have come to some realizations in my own reflection process that has brought
to the conclusion that it is time for me to move on and pursue more of my
own endeavors, so this is my farewell message to you. I have enjoyed and
learned much from my role here and the many talented people I have met and
worked with. I shall be forever committed to “Building Your Ideal
Practice” and never settling for anything less….I hope you do
the same.
I will support and assist David as we go through this transition and I hope
you will continue to support this venue and the excellent programs that
go with it. It is because of what I do here, and because of what I have
learned here, that I can fully embrace my calling, my life-path, my purpose
and my vision with courage and certainty of being exactly where I need to
be.
May you have a wonderful holiday season.
Namaste’….
Ken
P.S. Remember to tell your colleagues about the upcoming Practice Building
Intensive that starts in January.
2. Register
Now for January Practice Building Intensive!
- Ready to build your ideal practice?
- Want to work less and make more?
- Would you like to learn how you can actually have fun building and
marketing your business?
If so, then join our January Practice Building Intensive!
We will meet for 12 weeks on every Thursday at 12 noon EST beginning January
8th and you will learn everything you need to have a successful private
practice.
This step-by-step program includes:
- E-book version of How To Build Your Ideal Practice In 90 Days
- Weekly assignments with all the step-by-step instructions needed to
complete them
- Weekly consultation teleclass, Thursdays 9am pacific/Noon eastern, recorded
for your listening convenience (web audio recordings also available)
- E-mail discussion list for your questions, ideas, feedback, and support
- Discounted spot coaching available if needed
- Access to our exclusive Practice Development Resource Bank, Knowledge
Bank, and Audio Catalogue for the best "how to" information and free/low cost practice-building
resources
- Alternative programs to fit your needs and budget: On-line version, Group Tele-program,
and Individual
Facilitated by David Steele, Mentor Coach and Author of "How
To Build Your Ideal Practice In 90 Days".
And the REALLY great news is that this program is very affordable.
Check out these options:
- Pinnacle Club: Monthly individual coaching, bi-weekly small group coaching,
and much more! Now only $495.00 enrollment and $49.00 per month (cancel
at any time)
- Go-Getter's Club: Small group coaching every other week, tele-program,
cyber-coaching, and more! Now only $195.00 enrollment and $39.00 per month
(cancel at any time)
- Tele-Program: Unlimited access to our 90-Day
Tele-program and all membership benefits such as our Knowledge
Bank, Resource Bank, discounted Spot Coaching, Audio Programs, and more!
Only $95.00 enrollment and $29.00 per month (cancel at any time)
Now is the time to jump in and get the information and support you need to build your ideal practice.
For more information click
here
3. December 3rd Free Practice Building
Seminar- Answering Your Call with special guest John
Schuster, author of Answering Your Call, who will present how
to discover and live your Purpose.
In this session we will cover:
- Important ideas about callings, how to live them, and how to help
others discover theirs.
- The myth of one calling per lifetime, and will instead explore the
idea of a portfolio of calls that comprise our lives and our work.
- About saboteurs and evocateurs as life positions that anyone wanting
to live a called life needs to know about and consider.
- How to work with and not against the ego, the great tainter of calls.
Expect a fun and impactful session from an expert on purpose and meaning
in our everyday lives. This is the perfect seminar to help you reflect
upon this past year and prepare for the new year.
For more information about this and future Free Practice-Building Seminars
click
here
To subscribe to this newsletter and receive free seminar announcements click
here.
4. January 7th Free Practice Building Seminar- Endless Referrals
with David Steele
The number one goal of most private practice professionals is to GET
CLIENTS, and by far, the most effective way to get clients is WORD OF
MOUTH REFERRALS.
Start the new year by learning how to:
- Effectively develop endless referrals from colleagues and allied professionals
- Stimulate endless referrals from past and current clients
- Get endless referrals from people that don't even know you!
Don't miss this seminar- put it on your calendar today!
For more information about this and future Free Practice-Building Seminars
click
here
To subscribe to this newsletter and receive free seminar announcements click
here.
5. A Tribute to Ken Donaldson by David Steele
Ken Donaldson, my friend and business partner returned from the ICF conference
a few weeks ago on fire with a commitment to pursue his ideal practice that,
unfortunately, meant resigning as Director of Practice Development for RCI
and as President of BYIP.com.
While I'm sad to see him move on, I have tremendous respect and appreciation
that he is walking his talk and moving on for all the right reasons. I know
he loves his work here at BYIP.com and we have a lot of fun together, so
I know this decision must be very hard for him.
In addition to being a talented therapist and coach, Ken is an award-winning
nature photographer with a vision of combining his passion for helping people
with his art. To check out his photography work click
here.
I have no doubt that Ken's moving on will open new doors for him, as well
as for BYIP.com.
Thank you Ken for lending us your heart, talent, passion, experience, and
knowledge, and helping BYIP.com and our programs evolve to where we are
today. We wish you the best and look forward to your continued participation
in our community.
Table of Contents
FEATURE ARTICLE
Answering Your Call: Composing a Life of Purpose
and Meaning by John Schuster
“I have calling envy,” Kate said in a somewhat desperate tone
at the start of our first phone call.
I smiled at her phrasing—a clever spin on a Freudian term—knowing
it helped her sum up her dilemma.
Kate hired me as a personal coach to help her explore her situation. At
34, she was full of talent and chutzpah. She had earned an MBA from a
top-five business school, then launched her career at a big consulting
firm. She moved to a small start-up company, where she made good money
with a ground-floor opportunity. She had traveled extensively, often to
third-world countries. And she had recently gotten married and was thinking
about starting a family.
Kate wanted to make a good living. But, above all, she wanted to do something
that really mattered. Envious of others who appeared to be answering their
call, she questioned if she was going about her own call process well.
She wondered if she was listening to her intuition and her inner drives
and urges. And she doubted if she knew her true talents or if she was
scanning her environment to see her real options.
Like millions of other Americans, Kate had plenty of consumer and lifestyle
choices. But, despite the innumerable choices, she faced a shortage of
the “basics” for a joyful and fulfilling existence—a
shortage far more significant than running low on small pleasures or cool
experiences or even on good jobs to choose from.
In Kate’s world of career and financial success, she had come up
against an emotional and spiritual shortage. With her call seemingly eluding
her, she was short on purpose and meaning. In addition, she sensed that
she was short on time—merely going through the motions rather than
getting on with the “real stuff.”
The term "call" deserves explanation. If we listen to how the
term is being used in general speech, there is a pattern emerging: the
word call is being taken out of a strictly religious definition
and it is being applied across all of society. So calls no longer are
confined to ministers, but to leaders and professionals and persons of
all kinds. Callings can refer to all the worthy human endeavors where
fulfillment is possible for the person, and making the world a little
better is the result for the world.
Psychologist Carl Jung, the father of the ubiquitous personality typing
(via Meyers-Briggs and others) used the word callings to describe the
inner factor that urges people to live their own creative life and not
be bound to someone else’s script. In this way calls can pick up
where careers end. Kate’s issue is not solely a career challenge
of finding the right job path. Kate’s issue is deeper, more about
expressing her gifts for the good of the world while making good money.
Her “meaning-short” life nagged her with the fear that she
didn’t know why she was here and what she was doing. And her “time-short”
life nagged her with the guilt that she was spending her precious time
in roles and activities that weren’t worthy of her best efforts.
Myths About Calls
So Kate and I began a series of conversations to guide and support her
journey. We also debunked a few myths about calls along the way:
- Calls are for the few—a select and special group of individuals.
The truth? Everyone has a call or, more likely, a “portfolio”
of calls.
- There is one big call in a lifetime.
The truth? Most people have several
calls, with some bigger and longer-lasting than others.
- Only heroic action constitutes a call.
The truth? While most people
are heroic on occasion, they are more likely to experience a life of common
calls to ordinary roles such as parent, volunteer, or professional.
- Society will support a call.
The truth? While society has some elements
that will help a call, the dominant culture will push people to live on
the surface of their lives.
After several months work, Kate now finds herself open and prepared to
recognize and answer the calls in her life. She knows that the work will
be ongoing, with no particular beginning or end. And she isn’t pressuring
herself to come up with the perfect answer or the “call of all calls”
for this next chapter. Instead, she is composing a life around her values
and allowing the themes and roles of her life to speak to her about the
deeper possibilities.
A Decision-Making Triad
To compose a “called life” of purpose and meaning, let an
important life-decision triad—relationships (who and how you love),
work (what and how you do), and self (who and how you become)—be
your guide.
The three parts of the triad—loving, doing, and becoming are
basic, but by no means are easy or simple to construct into a well-lived
life. Creating and harmonizing your “love-do-become” triad
can require lengthy and continuous work and attention.
Each part of the triad will have its challenges. Your relationships can
be disappointing or destructive. Your work can be boring or defeating.
And even if you’re highly successful, you can suffer from feelings
of inadequacy or from the “inner demons” of your psyche.
Then, there’s getting the right mix and blend of the three parts.
That will have its challenges, too. You can be a career over-achiever
with a great work life, but have a capacity for intimacy that equals the
mahogany desk at which you sit. Or you can have exceptional emotional
intelligence and a strong affinity for personal growth, but have little
money and even fewer career prospects.
Two Important Decisions
There is no short-cut for making the life of your own choosing a called
life of enough success in the world to keep a roof over your head and
enough inner-fulfillment to feel like you have lived your call. There
are two very important decisions you need to make, however, for each part
of the triad and the mixture/blend between them to work.
- You must believe you have something to contribute with your life.
You
must have the courage of your conviction about your own calls. It is especially
important to believe in your calls when the external evidence is minimal—when
your job is a dead-end and your life seems to be going nowhere. Especially
during life’s doldrums, you need to believe and assert your will,
that in spite of appearances and your feelings, you have important chapters
and opportunities to add value ahead of you.
- You must not pay too much attention to what others think.
Society and
your life will be filled with people who mean well and who think they
have your answers. Listen, sift out what doesn’t fit (considerable
amounts, on occasion), and make your own decisions. This is how leaders are made and called lives are composed.
The good news in all this? The work you’ll do within and between the
love-do-become triad, unrelenting at times, won’t all be super-arduous.
In fact, it will often be fun and rewarding while blessing your life with
long stretches of well-deserved joy.
For more about finding and following your calling, please join us on Wednesday
December 3rd for our free tele-seminar Answering Your Call
with John Schuster.
This is the perfect seminar to help you reflect upon this past year
and prepare for the new year.
For more information about this and future Free Practice-Building Seminars
click
here
Table of Contents
CONGRATS!
Our PBI Participants Share Their Wins
CONGRATS To Minesh Baxi who writes:
"I was a computer programmer with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering
and a Masters in Systems Engineering and Management. Unfortunately the
programming career was ill-suited for my people-oriented attitude though
I stuck with it for 12 years. It was difficult to leave a six-figure income
career!
But I had had enough of corporate life and decided to become a speaker
and a coach over 3 years ago. I hired a coach and bought a program from
ASLA (American Seminar Leaders Association) and went out trying to generate
income in my new venture. The first 2 years were hard.
Today I have a thriving practice and I am putting together quite a few
exciting programs like - "7 Ways to Get Millionaire to Promote
Your Business for FREE," and "Why Healing Professionals
Fail in Business."
I have created a simple strategy of attracting clients using the proven
idea of providing value upfront at no cost to add people to my database
and then persistently marketing to them with compelling offers.
Some of my projects and goals are:
1. Creating a "Double Your Business University" for
local business owners here in the Detroit area
2. Writing a book with my mentor Rick Ruby - a multi-millionaire on "How
To Be a Millionaire in Lending and Real Estate Industry"
3. Have 100 clients in 12 month coaching program by October 2004, combining
group and 1-1 coaching model
4. Move to Florida by August 2004
5. Enjoy my wonderful wife and new-born baby
What I could have done different?
1. I highly recommend David Steele's support system at BYIP.com
and stay focused in in the 90 Day program for a year at least.
2. Learn to build strategic alliances with giver's gain.
3. Attend Fear FREE Prospecting Workshop (now I conduct them)
4. Be coachable, focused and implement ideas quickly with strict accountability
For more information about Minesh and his programs click
here.
COOL RESOURCE OF THE
MONTH
 Answering
Your Call: A Guide for Living Your Deepest Purpose By John Schuster
This spiritual how-to book helps readers discern what they are called to
do, find the courage to respond to that call, and stay on course to make
that vision a reality.
Author John P. Schuster first explains what it means to be called to something
larger than ourselves — to find the life that best fits us because it uses
our talents to the fullest and adds the most lasting value to the world.
He then shows how we can respond to that call in any area of life from career
to family to community.
Answering Your Call
includes exercises, models, and guidelines for creating a life of meaning,
illustrated with concrete and practical real-world examples
Table of Contents
INVITATIONS
- We invite you to share this newsletter with a colleague.
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Practice development is always in need and we want to be the leaders
in our field.
- Please contact
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practice.
We are available for information, training, ideas, mentor coaching,
etc.
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and begin to earn extra income just by sharing our programs and products
with your friends and colleagues. For more info click
here.
- If you are a private practice professional who received this from
a colleague, we invite you to visit our web site and contact us for
information on joining us.
How do you like our newsletter? Your feedback is welcome!
Until next time…
David Steele, MA, LMFT
Founder and CEO of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
The purpose of this newsletter is to connect, support each other,
inform, and build a strong community of helping professionals who want
to have thriving businesses and fulfilling lives.
Feel free to share this with a colleague. Your submissions and feedback
are welcome!
Our Mission: To provide the tools, information and support to help private
practice professionals have their ideal practices in the most effective
and efficient ways possible.
Copyright notice: This newsletter is copyrighted and all rights
are reserved. Feel free to share with others as long as our contact information
and authorship is included. U.S. Library of Congress ISSN#:1530-3055
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