A Consultant by Any Other Name

What is a consultant? In theory, you ask a consultant a question and the consultant offers advice and answers. If you trust the consultant, you will follow the advice. If you don’t trust the consultant, or if the advice seems to risky or too far out for your personality, then you probably won’t. In the end, lots of people pay lots of money for consultation they don’t agree with and may never use. That’s not ok. As I was researching this article I Googled lots of counseling private practice consultants and most had great websites and great advice. Just for fun, since I am also into healthy eating and achieving balance, I researched a site called The Betty Rocker. Let’s compare. Private Practice Sites –        Had very catchy names that had everything to do with private practice, making a profit, decreasing no-shows, simplifying paperwork, etc. –        Some were a little difficult to navigate or you had to keep clicking to discover what they were actually selling. In the end, most of them were selling the personal consultation. I think. –        Some sites had awesome taglines. Others were non-existent, contained poor grammar, or required some pre-existing knowledge. What does it mean you want to help me scale my business? Are we fishing now? The Betty Rocker* –        Catchy? I mean, who doesn’t love a brand that sounds like a 1950s kitchen staple and includes “The” in the title? –        The Betty Rocker* only gives you three areas to click: Your kitchen, your body, or your goals. Easy peasy. –        The Betty Rocker* tagline is “Adventures in a Healthy Lifestyle of Awesome.” If a private practice consultant told me that after I worked with him or her I would have a ‘healthy practice that is awesome’ I would sign up. Immediately.   Why can’t a consulting website be as easy and direct as The Betty? Probably because running a business is more complicated than getting in shape. With our bodies and our health in general, we can be laser-focused because no one has to tell us we need to cut down on sugar or lose a few pounds. We are hard on ourselves and excited (for the most part) to try something new. Before you have a consultation with us at Kate Walker Training we want you to be laser-focused too. To get there, we will always ask you to answer the following:  What are your top three questions?  What are 2 or 3 of the problems you are experiencing in your practice? What are 2 or 3 things that you feel you do well?  Rate the following in order of importance where 1 is the most important and 5 is the least important: I would like my practice to: ____Be profitable so I can have more income ____Leave a legacy (this practice will live on after I’m gone) ____Increase in value so I can sell it  ____Take up less of my time so I can have life balance ____Be more secure – the systems I have in place now leave me worried about liability and client care What would a completely satisfying consultation look like for me?  Now you and your practice consultant can be focused on your goals, just like The Betty Rocker*.

**KWT does not endorse The Betty Rocker or use her products. Dr. Walker just thinks her tattoos are cool and her site is really, really awesome.