The Actual Truth: 50% Aren't Practicing vs. 50% Didn't Get Support

Ok, who here has heard someone say, “5 years out of grad school 50% of acupuncturists are no longer practicing”?

Usually, these are acupuncturists who graduated school, tried to open a practice without any guidance or coaching from someone that’s already successfully built one, are unknowingly stuck in scarcity mindset, have isolated themselves, have no financial plan of action, no clarity on what they’re building, and no support system.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!

The thing is, acupuncturists continue to go around saying how hard it is to build a practice, instead of figuring out how to get the right support that will lead them to success.

What it would mean to be surrounded by a group of positive, success-minded, supportive acupuncturists who were all encouraging you, helping you, and rooting for your success?

I want to give you an example from my own life.

When I was going into my 3rd year of coaching acupuncturists online, I had a strong inkling in my heart that I needed to let my acupuncture practice go and do the acupuncture business coaching full time.

Between the office and coaching, I was working all the time. The coaching was growing and I knew if I wanted to continue to impact our profession and heal the world at greater and greater levels, then coaching needed my full-time attention.

I knew what I needed to do, but I felt scared, uncertain, confused, and completely lacked any sort of blueprint how to do this. It actually felt a lot like in the beginning when I was trying to build my acupuncture practice! So I sat on this inkling with no idea what to do for 2 MORE YEARS.

Finally, as I was going into my 5th year of coaching, one of my entrepreneur friends who has a heart-centered world changing successful online business was hosting a business mastermind. I knew I couldn’t figure out how to go full time online myself and the years would continue to pass.

I jumped at the chance to be coached by her and paid $5000 on the spot!

During this mastermind, I received the best love, support, mindset coaching, and business blueprint in order to finally know how to do it and to finally feel confident enough to make the leap from my acupuncture practice into full-time coaching.

When I wrote this, I was heading into year 2 of full time coaching and previous year the coaching doubled in revenue and in impact.

But most importantly my heart feels free because I’m living in full alignment and feel fully plugged into my purpose in life! It feels incredible.

And that’s how I went from running a 6-figure acupuncture practice plus an online coaching business while feeling scared and confused about what to do next, to running the coaching business full time, traveling and meeting acupuncturists all around the world, while continuing to help all of you succeed, make a living doing what you love, heal the world, and mainstream Eastern medicine!

So although we love and respect those closest to us, they’re not always the right support to go to when you’re feeling scared, uncertain, confused, and completely lacking a blueprint how to build a successful practice.

You need to get help from supportive, loving, and knowledgable companions who will take you to the next level! That sounds good, right?

So here’s where NOT to go and I’m going to give it to you straight …

1. A lot of the acupuncture Facebook groups can be negative spaces. Practitioners are all dealing with their own scarcity mindsets, fears, self-judgments, etc, so that when you ask a question their own wounds get triggered. Their competitive streak kicks in and they often react from a disempowering place that looks a lot like comments filled with teasing, passive aggressiveness, or lacking in encouragement.
2. Your colleagues that are struggling to succeed also often want to commiserate. They’ll be burnt out, hopeless, and have bought into the “50% are no longer practicing” myth. Although they mean well, their support will feel heavy, draining, and generally without any useful information.
3. Your supervisors and teachers at school are sometimes working in the acupuncture school because they couldn’t successfully make it in their own private practice and they wind up projecting their own stories onto you. Their support will be saying things like, “You are going to be broke for five years.” (Yes an actual supervisor said this to a student! I hear these stories all the time and it drives me bananas) and other negative stories that are completely not true but rather a reflection of what they experienced when they tried to build a successful practice.

Today I want you to think about where have you previously gone for support? Did you receive a positive inspiring response or a disheartening discouraging one? Did you feel inspired and equipped to grow your practice and heal the world? Or did you walk away still feeling lost, helpless, and hopeless?

Want to know a great place to go for support? My community! Be sure to put your email in below to stay connected to a positive success minded group of world healing acupuncturists!