How It Has Been Easy Since Stepping Away From 1:1 Consultations, Messy but Rewarding [Ep #184]

 On this episode, I’m going to talk about how the last one and a half months have been since stepping away from one on one consultations. And I assure you, it has been anything but seamless. Stay tuned. 

Hey everyone, I have been thinking about this for a little while. I’ve been reflecting on how the past couple of months have been since my amazing transformation into being the team leader stepping out of the practitioner role, at least in office. And there’s so much gratitude that comes with that transition. But there’s also a lot of bad things, a lot of messy things, a lot of scary things that also happen during this transition. And it’s always my job to inspire you with action. All I ask of you is to take imperfect action and I don’t want me to pave this role to this maximized practitioner CEO person to be all airy-fairy and everything is easy. And when you hire the team you want to, that’s easy. When you step into the role that you want to be and that’s easy. It isn’t, it’s very gratifying, and it has been an amazing journey so far. I am so grateful for it. But what I wanted to talk about was the pros and cons of what’s been going on for the past, now we’re at 2 months almost a month and a half since really taking that plunge. 

So what I promised myself at the end of 2020 was I was going to start acting in a different place, I was going to start to show up in a different energetic way. I was going to let go of so much of the negativity and so much of the worry, and so much of the concerns that I had about growing. And about what the ideal, successful practitioner looks like. And really start showing up into a place of abundance. That is my word for 2021 is ‘abundance’ and attracting more abundance. And that doesn’t mean more revenue, but it’s more attracting our aligned patients. It’s attracting my team members, it’s keeping them fully fulfilled. It’s attracting, definitely getting easier money flowing to me. But that is of course not the first thing. It’s attracting a better lifestyle for my family, it’s attracting a relationship that I have with my husband and my kids. But it’s also about repelling the people that I don’t want to be working with. And that was really the mindset that I went in to 2021 is I was really done with working with tire kickers, working with people that would see us for a few visits that weren’t taking full responsibility for their health, and weren’t working to do that extra data. Those extra pieces really start to embrace the GAT protocol that we’d created and create systems around that. 

So I can say as I look back in here, I’m thinking we’ve been 3 months out and it’s only been like a month and a half. But what I can say is, stepping into that place where I was just energetically different. And the biggest reason why that energetic shift happened was because I got rid of the number one thing that I felt was dragging me down. And that was being a slave to my calendar. I didn’t realize how much it was draining me every single day to look at all the appointments that I had on my calendar. And being like ‘crap I have 20 different things every single day that I need to be showing up for. That I need to be offering my energy, my time to’. That was the biggest release I think for me, because I was feeling so dragged down by my calendar being so booked up. 3 or 4 days every single week that it was immediately dulling my creativity. It was dulling that light that I want it to shine, it was dulling my energy. And I just didn’t feel like I was performing in a way that I wanted to. So by releasing that, that was amazing. And it felt good and as soon as January first hit where I wasn’t doing those things. Stepping away that felt so good, and I knew that was exactly the right alignment for me. That was where I needed to be and really allowing my team members to shine. However, with these transitions came with a lot of challenges and a lot of learning lessons. 

And of course we’re also doing this during the pandemic when tensions are already high; anxiety is already high. And so now as much as we try to give our patients a heads up, they don’t always read your emails, they don’t always pay attention. Maybe they think lampstand it, and they didn’t that it was actually going to happen. I don’ know. But we did our best to give everyone a huge heads up like months in advance, and you still have again, talking about those patients that are in alignment with you and those at art. You still have those people that really take it personally and really created a lot of tension and drama for the month of January. 

By the time January was done, I was feeling pretty exhausted and I was saying this to my accountability coach that I really felt like my armor, the armor that I had been using. That armor that I was so attached to, that armor that I loved wearing and felt so strong with. Where I would get the negative feedback and I would just let it go right away. We had 5 major instances in January of people that were just unbelievably rude to our team. They would hang up on us, they would swear at us, they would threaten us and it was just unbelievable and we have 5 instances of this. So as that rolled out, as I was also feeling vulnerable being in a new position. Because when you step away from that practitioner role, doing the things that we were trained to do in school like this is the model, this is what you’re doing. So not doing it is completely going against the grain. There’s this huge aspect of losing that identity that you were so tethered to for decades, so this is now 10 years out. That I was also shedding that identity; I was shedding the ego that went along with that, I was shedding everything that I attached to being this in office practitioner I was having to let that go. 

During the same month were I was getting a lot of back-clash from people, and the first thing that we had to learn was the right language to be using. So when we would tell patients like ‘Dr. Maxim is no longer going to be doing any in office appointment, she’s only going virtual, and limited. And the reason why she’s doing that because she wants to step into this role, she wants to really go into the creative side of the business, help manage the team.’ Patients did not respond well to that, they got their backs up they just didn’t understand. You could tell they would just look at you with this blank face ‘this doesn’t compute with me, I don’t understand why that’s a good enough reason for you not to continue to treat me.’ So we, not lying so much but we definitely reinforce that instead of saying it’s all about business ownership and running the business that we were now using remote learning. As one of the ways to soften this blow to patients for them to understand why I was stepping away. Which was absolutely true, we didn’t know at that time that January was going to be such a cluster, which it was. But we found even just the language that we were using with patients made a huge difference whether they bought into the new dynamic that the team was having or they didn’t. So we used family, when we used staying home with kids, when we used navigating remote learning and homeschooling and things like that. People totally got it, there’s no issues, there’s no resistance at all. Everything moved along smoothly, but when we talked about the change in business dynamic, that did not go over well. 

And in fact, we had quite a few patients that when we said I wasn’t going to be seeing patients in office anymore, they were like ‘well I’m just going to move somewhere else. I’m just going to go to a different practitioner. I’m not up for going virtual, that just doesn’t work for me. If you’re not going to be in office then I’m not going to come anymore.’ We had a few people do that, and again with my armor being on at that time, I was able to take those hits. That was fine. Then on top of that, we had one individual who with incredibly rude to my team member sent threatening emails, just was not having it no matter what we said. And that was something that I started to take on and of course again, whether these patients are in alignment or not the ones I get the most upset usually are definitely dealing with their own things. But are just not in alignment with the way our business are moving forward. 

And then there was one major mistake that I take full responsibility for where I was just so loving this idea of moving this patients over to my team members that we didn’t take the time to make sure that on the back end people were fully understanding what was going on. So we had one initial patient book in with me through our online booking link. I rescheduled her with one of my team members, I did not disclose that I was happening. She of course was taken aback when it was my team member on the call and not myself. That cause another slew of emails back and forth which again, I took my responsibility for and she didn’t want to continue working with us. So, I mean there’s only so much that you can do. I took that as definitely my responsibility. Our website was on update for the change, by booking links weren’t updated for the change. So that changes within a 24 hour period immediately. But these things that you don’t think about. You’re so focused on me getting out of that space, me starting to adapt into this new creative role that I have been looking forward to being in for at least 5 years now. And you forget about what it looks like on the external side to these new patients coming in. so we lost that person. And then, that was fine. 

But I would say that it just all happened in that initial month, there were definitely moments where I was like ‘is this even worth it? Is this something that I should be doing, we’re getting so much backlash from literally 5/6 people in a sea of 500 patients that we see that it wasn’t statistically a big deal. But again I was starting to take it personal, to the point where I had to tell my team ‘look, if there’s anything that’s negative that’s going on that I don’t realistically need to know about what’s going on, just deflect it from me. I can’t take those hits right now, I’m feeling so emotionally vulnerable. That this is not just something I can handle.’ But on the flip side of doing all of this, stepping into this new place of abundance and attracting these patients that don’t give us resistance. That are willing to pay out of pocket that are leaning into this new way of doing this and are completely fine with it. That’s all I’ve been showing up for the past couple of weeks, and I’m just so grateful that I didn’t let that fear that those hits that I’ve been taking, take me off track. And stop this path that I created and go back to doing what was safe and what everybody likes just to appease these 5/6 people that quite frankly aren’t the right fit for our team anyway. 

And so, one of the best things that has happened is we incorporated in 2019 and with CRA which is the Canadian government. Depending on how much you are spending in taxes and I was used to giving the government at least 20 to 30k in taxes at the end of every month prior to being incorporated. So they tell you how to pay in installments. So tell you like every quarter you should be paying is this much just so when tax time comes around, you don’t have this huge amount to pay. So I did that, of course I’m so afraid of doing anything wrong by the government. Like fear city are going to call up by them or something bad is going to happen. And so I gave them 18 thousand dollars last year to pay for 2019’s taxes. But then my accountant says, she’s doing our books, so she was like when you’re incorporated you’re now at 15% tax rate instead of 25%. You would only be spending about 6-7 thousand a year. So she was just like you gave the government way more money than you should. And how amazing was that where the past decade I’ve just been so used about giving the government all of my money never getting money back. That in the past couple of months I’ve now not only received a little bit here or there with my personal income being an employee. Or taking evidence from the company, but now I’m getting 12k back from the government because I overpaid. 

So this little tiny things started to show up. As I started to show up in this new place of abundance, in this new place of attraction. Energetically just showing up in a much different way, now money is starting to come to me, money that I wasn’t even expecting. I had a GST rebate coming from the government. This over payment that I made last year is coming back to me now. All these little things just started to show up where I’m starting to now receive money that I wasn’t even expecting. The other most amazing thing that I started to notice over the past couple of weeks were now part of our system. Part of our funnel is no lead magnets, no freebies that way just book in a discovery call. I’ve done now 4 discovery calls in the past 2 weeks and every single one of them have closed in some capacity. We had one person who was an older patient of mine who learned about our GAT protocol. As a team we completely redigged this program, it’s now a 3k program. I presented it too on her call and she was like ‘totally. Let’s do it. So fine. Cool.’ And then we just started her on it. That was when I really knew that everything that I had built was exactly what I should’ve been doing this whole time. And it took me 10 years to get here, I’m fine with that. I don’t even look back and say ‘if I’ve only done it sooner etc.’ this was the journey that I needed to take but when that 30 min conversation ended up in this potential 3 thousand dollars sale. Definitely a 25 hundred dollars sale, without any resistance, without me having to over embellish why such a great investment. I was like ‘ok this was the universe proving that I was doing exactly what I was needed to do. I had the team members in place that needed to be there; we had the system and place that we need to be there. That finally this was what the business was supposed to be like; this was with me now taking 20-30 hours off of my plate of seeing patients. This is me paying more salary out to my employees. 

It’s a totally different shift, which was very scary. But those little things, those little signs that universe gives you are so profound. So that was huge. Then on 2 discovery calls that I had just the other day, I should say, both of them ‘you now these are the investment, these are the labs that I recommend there are. It’s a 6-7 hundred dollar investment. This is what I think you should do.’ Without even blinking an eye, without even giving me any sort of ‘oh that’s too expensive, I don’t think I can afford that. That doesn’t sound like something I’m going to do. ‘Even out of pocket, I will pay this that makes sense, let’s get started.’ They booked in as a new patients with my team. So it’s been a hard couple of weeks initially but now it feels so good and it feels like such the right choice. And the number 1 reason for that is because I said, I don’t want to wish to be working at this level that I know I need to be working at. I don’t want to be keep wishing that someday I can step away from doing this things that I’m just not in alignment with anymore. It doesn’t fulfill me, I’m not showing up the way that I should be for these patients. Because it isn’t the role that I need to be in. My team members are way better practitioners than I think I will ever be. And they are providing my patients with such amazing service that I’m just thankful that I get to be there to support them. 

And I was just so grateful for leaning into the fear, leaning into the worry, leaning into the anxiety, taking the hits as I needed to come but not doing it in such a way that I completely revert back to how things worth. It has been such an amazing journey that all my life I can think of is just how grateful I am. How the universe is showing me that this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. So there is most likely a path that you want to be on, that path that you are wishing will happen. A path that you know if you were stepping into that roll. You’d be happier, you’d feel more fulfilled, and you would present yourself to the universe in a different way. You would show up to your family members in a different way. Your relationship with your partner would be different. Because you will just be a different person, if there’s something that is preventing you from getting those things that you want, I would love to have s discussion with you on this. Because it took me 10 years to work through the limiting beliefs, to work through the money issues, to work the ego of meeting to do all the things. To break out of the practitioner bubble that I felt so trapped in. but that was what was just ingrained in me and indoctrinated in me for 4 years during school when you are literally being torn apart by stress and demands and tests and all of these other things. That it took me until now to get there. I don’t want it to take that long for you, it might. It might take you a little bit longer, maybe you’re already 15 years out, and maybe you’re 20 years out. But I know that as long as I’m taking those steps to get to that point. And as long as I know that when I can take that leap that I will. That is all that matters. 

And a lot of humbleness needs to come in to be able to do that, a lot of working through these things, a lot of taking the leap and hoping the net will appear. Holding that fear with you, letting go of what money means to you. I was reflecting on my payroll spent for last year, it was 45 thousand dollars. It was the most I ever spent in payroll ever, and it’s just going to be just as much if not more this year. But it didn’t bother me, it wasn’t like ‘oh my God, I can’t believe I spent that much. What else could I’ve done with that money?’ And I was just like ‘ok, cool. That’s how much I needed to spend to create this team environment and to create this atmosphere that I wanted to create.’ 

So I’m going to attach a few links here, just above this video one is going to be the MPP handbook guide that I want you to download. Where it’s going to talk about your success blockers, it’s going to talk about the limiting beliefs that you need to be readdressing and needing to work through. I’m also going to put a link there where you can book a call with me, and you and I can have a conversation about what’s holding you back and what you want your dream business to look like. Again, I’m not going to be the one to inspire you through knowledge, through books that I learn, through courses that I take. I don’t think that’s the appropriate way to be teaching anybody or mentoring anybody. I’m always going to be inspiring by the actions that I take. And I will always be fully transparent about the good and the bad of taking those actions and what the journey actually looks like. That is something that I pride myself on is being totally real, cutting through he BS just saying this is how it is, no story-telling. This is what I know to be true because I’m living it, because I’m doing it, because I did it. And that’s why I paved this path for you. That’s why I wanted you to have this path that you can run down and not walk. 

So please, in the description I want you to book that 30 min call with me. Let’s chat about your business, I want you to download that MPP handbook which is all about my methodology as to how we created our team structure and the messaging. What’s really helped and what I had to work through. I want you to download that and I want you to actually read it. Don’t just put it on your desktop, I want you to read through it. It’s a 29 page document but it is so worth it. Again, no fluff, no BS, no long winded stories. It’s just is what it is. Because what I have come from me stopped, I stopped wishing for it and just made it happened. And I chipped away at it every single year and got the knowledge that I needed to every single year. And now I’m living the life that I’ve always wanted to live. Doesn’t mean I’m a millionaire, because money in the bank is not what’s driving me. Time freedom, has always been my biggest driver. Time freedom will always have me spend all the money that I need to keep my team going and to keep my business going the way that it needs to. To provide the best service that we can. But were either feel shackled to it at every single step. But we’ve also created business where I could jump into it at any point in time and pick up where we left off and run with it. 

Everything is so turnkey and so simple and so dialed in, and that takes time and every single day we’re trying to dial it in even better. Figure out new ways to do it, and that is all that I want for you. So let me know how I can help you. Don’t continue to drown in your own little ocean all by yourself. There are life rafts all around you and I’m one of them and all you have to do is reach up and grab for them. So I hope that this brought a little inspiration to you, I hope that it shows that the path is not perfectly paved and it’s not easy going and it’s not seamless. There’s a lot of what feel like daggers at the time that will be thrown at you, but that is what happens with growth. And it is what happens when other people get comfortable because their path is changing. But it can’t persuade you away from what you want your journey to look like and what you want your lifestyle to look like. And I just want to continue to be living proof that it is possible and you can have it and you can break out of that practitioner bubble. So take me up on my resources and I can’t wait to see you pop up in my DMs @andreamaximnd. Pop up in my email with that booking, let’s chat. I’m Andrea Maxim and I’m out.