May 24, 2017
My first Ayurvedic Practitioner teacher was Mary Thompson at the
California College of Ayurveda (CCA). Mary and I both ended up
parking trailers on the land of dear Linsey Richards, who owned a
beautiful lot an a tributary to the Yuba River. This particular
creek has a spectacular 50 foot waterfall.
“I remember the first seeds of Yogahealer that you shared
with me in your tiny trailer on Linsey’s property,” recalls
Mary, “I would like to share a small part of your story
with the graduates of CCA and, if you have any words of wisdom for
them, I’d like to share those, too.” Linsey Richards, a
generous soul who was running the Pancha Karma Clinic for the
California College of Ayurveda, took us in as Ayurvedic
wanderlusters. She invited us to each park a trailer on her land
above the waterfall.
What you’ll get out of tuning in:
- Get Cate’s best advice for your wellness pro career
development
- Shortcut the hard lessons you learned as an Ayurvedic
Practitioner
- Learn why you want to focus on results with your clients
I had the extremely good fortune to be nurtured and nourished by
these two deep lovers of Ayurveda. I was apprenticing at CCA in the
herb department and the Pancha Karma department under Linsey’s
tutelage. We’d head back to the gorgeous spot Linsey owned above
the Yuba River after work/school. We lived, breathed and conversed
Ayurveda.
Mary recently contacted me to let me know that she is leaving
her long time teaching position at California College of Ayurveda
at the end of the year. CCA asked her to be the speaker at this
year’s graduation. She reached out to me because of our strong
connection back in 1999. I was honored to hear what she had
to say next:
“I want to leave the graduates with an inspirational message
about some graduates of CCA and what they have done since their
graduation.
I find the work you are doing out in the world to be
inspirational. Having known you as a student and to see what
you have manifested since that time is certainly inspiring to me.
I remember the first seeds of Yogahealer
that you shared with me in your tiny trailer on Linsey’s property.
I would like to share a small part of your story with the
graduates and, if you have any words of wisdom for them, I’d like
to share those, too.
I’ve been able to get some info from your website, but would
love to hear any advice you might give to a new graduate. Do
you have any advice for the new graduate?
Imagine if you as who you are today could
have whispered something to yourself during your own graduation
ceremony, what would that have been?”
Mary’s question forced me to think about what I would say to
myself if I could travel back in time from today to my past self at
my time of graduation. When I graduated I already had started
www.yogahealer.com. Last
year, we did about $1.2 M in revenue and we have a team of 10. We
have 55 workstudies on the team in mentoring and community
leadership roles. To say I could have even dreamed this when I
graduated school is a stretch beyond my imagination.
Here are the 10 steps I came up with in response to the
question.
“Imagine if you as who you are today could have
whispered something to yourself during your own graduation
ceremony, what would that have been?”
1. Feel your care.
Tap into your desire to
be of service, to help people, don’t focus what you’re getting,
focus on what you’re giving. Get good at serving and the
opportunities will follow.
2. Get experience + get results as quickly as you
can.
Whittle away your 10000 hours, as Malcolm Gladwell would say. Don’t
worry about what to charge people. Find out if you can provide
value. Once you are providing value and getting results for people
– you’ll have a much better sense of how you can exchange your
value in the marketplace. As I learned from Greg Hartle,
author of Ten Dollars and a Laptop, “You serve at the pleasure of
the marketplace.”
3. Design a journey for your future
clients.
You can use emails, phone calls, videos, worksheets, checklists,
quizzes, retreats, 1-1 time, group time and a mix of it all.
Focus on where the people who come to you want to go -and
design for that.
4. Invest in learning a better business
model as an Ayurvedic practitioner.
I
grew up semi-affluent. As a typical pitta-head I had a strong
affinity for the finer things in life. I also have an ego the size
of a mac truck. I wanted not just be good in my chosen career, I
felt extremely driven to be great. I wanted to thrive, not survive,
as a wellness pro. Implementing the right business model made the
difference in income, and more importantly, it made the difference
in impact. Most practitioners are unaware that they even have a
business model for how they market, how they sell, how the deliver
the experience of wellness. First, realize that there is a model
out there that will lead you to your desired impact and desired
results. Then, find it. I explain the model I use in this free
training at www.yogahealthcoaching.com/thrive.
5. Find the people who want
help.
Go to where the people who want help are already hanging out. Don’t
try to get people to come to you. Don’t try to convince people they
need your help. For starters, remember to who you were 3 steps ago
on your journey to thrive. What questions were you asking? Where
you spending time? What would have engaged you into
investing in what you most wanted 3 steps back? The
marketers who are really good at this focus on their unique niche
with specificity. Start with an internal investigation into the
past version of yourself(think 3 steps back). Based on what you
discover, Write an outline for free talk. Deliver that free talk
and end it with an invitation for people to have a conversation
with you.
6. lnvest in your
interests.
Notice your “aha’s. Pay
attention to where your interests lead. Trust the shakti, the
creative force of the universe, that arises as your own yearning to
do what you want to do. Notice Who You’re
Noticing. Notice whose work you’re attracted to. Get in
touch with your own desire to be good at guiding people to thrive.
Desire to be great and study those who are great. Journal on your
desires and end each entry with an action step to make something
happen, or to run a small experiment to see how deep that desire
goes or where it leads next.
7. Form a pro posse.
Stick together. Form a mesh, form a mastermind, get
stronger together. Help each other to get established and
take off. For starters, do a little research on Mastermind groups.
Then, write a list of 4-6 people who are like you in wanting
to develop their careers, and who are at about the same stage. Do a
quick interview with each of them to see if they are a fit. Then,
schedule your first meeting using a group scheduling tool like
www.doodle.com.
8. Learn the Yoga of sales +
marketing.
Don’t fall for the hype of the latest and greatest in how to grow
your clientele. Learn the time tested essentials of sales and
marketing. Respect the wisdom of the great teachers of sales and
the great gurus of marketing. It’s the yogic path of the
marketplace and it leads to having a deeper, bigger, and more long
lasting impact. Learn how to market, how to sell, even before you
know what you’re marketing and selling. Start now and you’ll be
able to support yourself.
9. Befriend technology + hire a techie
V.A.
Whether you want to make a living or make a fortune, you live in
the age of the search engine. You have the power to design an
original and uniquely valuable experience for the people you want
to help. Search for yourself on the internet. Imagine someone has
just heard your name for the first time? Google yourself…Is that
the experience you want someone to have? They hear about your great
work, then what? Improve the experience. Over the years I wanted my
peeps to have a better experience, so I hired virtual assistants
from Upwork.com to design the website, run the Facebook ads, take
care of the customer service.
10. Become a better version of
yourself.
Raise your own bar in how you can help people. Know who you are by
studying your personality tests. Know your assets and grow them.
Discover your native genius and develop that. But, whatever you do,
don’t ever present yourself as knowing it all or having it all
together. You’ll create more separation than connection, which will
keep your clients from getting results. Not to mention you’ll feel
like a fraud.
Links:
BIO:
Cate founded Yogahealer.com in 2001 to guide Yoga people into
Ayurveda and Ayurveda people into yoga. Built on the value of both
personal and planetary thrive and a deep connect to one’s
ecosystem, community and body, Yogahealer grew into a team, 2
podcasts a week, regular blogging, an arsenal of courses to guide
people into their potential, an a professional community +
certification program Yoga Health
Coaching.
Cate wrote and self-published Body Thrive: Uplevel Your
Body and Your Life with 10 Habits from Ayurveda and Yoga, an
Amazon #1 Bestseller in Ayurveda, which helps people who dig yoga
take a giant leap forward in their wellness trajectory with
Ayurveda.
Cate have had a blast innovating on the edge of a 5000 year old
deep wellness wisdom tradition. Tapping modern culture into ancient
traditions is what Yogahealer has always been about and continues
to become next!