Use honesty and passion and to engage your authentic niche.

Emotional topic warning! Have you ever dreamed of earning above $100,000 in your holistic practice but felt it just wasn’t possible?

You will eventually hit an income ceiling with a private holistic practice, no matter how much you charge per hour. You’ll need a more layered, complex business model if you want to grow your business past the 70K per year marker.

My deepest wish for my business coaching clients is a life free from financial worry. In some ways, your yearly income is not really the most important thing. Depending on your circumstances, time and quality of life can be more valuable than money.

So much depends on your local economy, your personal financial needs, and your family circumstances: children, elders, pets, and health challenges in your family system. In some places, $60,000 can be an incredible achievement and represent abundance. In some places, $100,000 can be stressful.

That said, I’m starting a Mastermind Group for folks who want to grow their business in the $75,000 – $150,000 range, and I’m doing it for a reason.

Not because I think it’s morally superior to earn six figures. Not because I think that makes you and your work more meaningful or important.

I’m doing this because people with similar goals work well together and can effectively support each other in reaching those goals. That’s what community is for.

(If you are interested but can’t afford the full fee, email me! I have two spots open in my other group.)

I’m experimenting with this transparency about yearly income because of all the feelings that come up for me, and my community, when I use the antiquated phrase “earn six figures.” Maybe you can relate. It’s become almost meaningless.

If you are still reading (breath…), today’s post offers some nuanced ways to do one of my favorite business skills, market research, with your current clients to increase your income.

Learning business skills is not very glamorous, but avoiding them is even less so.

Lack of business building skills can be emotionally painful. Your confidence in your work gets slowly eroded, when the problem is really elsewhere. I’m on a mission to buck that trend by sharing business skills far and wide.

This is a companion post to the previous one about organically identifying your niche, or core audience, looking at the common problems they have. Today’s post focuses on passion.

Passion is a fleeting emotion, but it’s a valuable sign-post for deeper needs and desires which are more enduring. The passions your clients express are often more mundane and ordinary than you’d think.

After you’ve found out what the problem they want help with is, ask your clients this question:

“What do you dream of being able to do in your life – if you didn’t have this problem?“

For example, if your client didn’t have a frozen shoulder, what would they be doing that they can’t do now?

The first time I ask this question, I’ve heard answers ranging from:

• I’d have bigger muscles, look better, and be more attractive to guys at the gym.

• I wouldn’t have to think about my body so much all the time!

• I’d look symmetrical.

It’s a great sign that they can be so honest with you! People are sincerely frustrated with these humble topics, and they will happily pay you to help them.

Of course, people don’t really want to ignore their bodies. Everyone has a bigger sense of purpose in this life than just fitting in and being liked. It just takes courage to admit it. Some of your clients won’t go there with you, but many will if you just ask.

Once you have solved their initial problem, begin a conversation about deeper purpose and longer-term goals.

This stage of your work will start to happen after their first or second package, or sometimes if you are lucky their 3rd or 4th session. Track those conversations and take notes. What words and phrases do your clients use? Practice listening. Their language will help you reach other people just like them.

Over the years, I’ve kept index cards or charts for each client with this information. They are a goldmine.

Listening more deeply to the answers above, I hear:

• I’d be accepted and appreciated.

We live in a deeply ableist culture. People are rightly afraid of being ostracized, ignored, and abandoned if they are physically different, show any weakness or have asymmetrical bodies. The problem is, they are distorting their bodies, voices, or other aspects of themselves to fit in, which is what’s causing problems. If they change their behavior, it will change their life too, and they’ll need support to get through the blocks that will surely arise.

• I’d be less self-conscious and feel freer to just be.

We are taught to control our bodies. It’s exhausting. We aren’t taught to seek out physical pleasure or joy, and if we ever knew we may have lost that ability. Because those things are a must for our wellbeing, the reality is we have to have an intention to find them. Unlike sorrow and trouble, joy won’t seek you out. People need to learn precisely how, and they need a community to support them and remind them how important intentions are when the shit hits the fan.

• I’d be physically flexible, confident, and able to take care of myself.

The potential loss of physical independence and adaptability is a source of great anxiety for many people. Science has shown that this anxiety itself has more of a negative impact on future mobility than the actual loss of independence itself. Healing that anxiety and can massively improve quality of life and health outcomes as we age.

These issues light me up! They align with my own deeper sense of purpose as an embodiment educator and culture disruptor.

I think business growth happens in the liminal space where our bodies bump up against the culture. I want the bodies to win! That’s why I want your business to succeed as well.

Once you find the connection between your passion and the passions of your clients, it’s much easier to expand your audience and grow your business. It’s like the hot spot in a Venn diagram.

Your core content must be truly essential for both you and your clients for to gain traction.

Would you like to get your income up into the $75,000 – $150,000 per year range? This is what I love helping holistic practitioners achieve. Amplifying new, innovative voices is my passion. I know you can do it because I did, but I couldn’t have done it alone.

If you are in this place in your business development, and determined to level up, there are still spots left in my upcoming Mastermind Group. Book your interview (a free, no sales pressure biz strategy session) HERE before September 15. The deadline for registration is September 18.