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How does your business find its true relevance in the world? Why should you practice authentic outreach with your client base? What does it mean to be a visionary leader?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks about unveiling the strategic narrative and empowering business leaders with Guillaume Wiatr.
Podcast Sponsor: Alma
Going in-network with insurance can be tough. Filing all of the right paperwork is time-consuming and tedious, and even after you’re done, it can take months to get credentialed and start seeing clients.
That’s why Alma makes it easy and financially rewarding to accept insurance. When you join their insurance program, you can get credentialed within 45 days, and access enhanced reimbursement rates with major payers. They also handle all of the paperwork, from eligibility checks to claims submissions, and guarantee payment within two weeks of each appointment.
Once you’ve joined Alma’s insurance program, you can see clients in your state of licensure regardless of where you’re working from.
Learn more about building a thriving private practice with Alma at helloalma.com/joe
Meet Guillaume Wiatr
Guillaume is the author of Strategic Narrative: A Simple Method That Business Leaders Can Use to Help Everyone Understand Their Business, Get Behind it and Believe In It. His company, MetaHelm, guides CEOs, founders, and leadership teams of professional services firms to gain focus and traction so they build a successful business that they also love.
A former big-firm strategy consultant, Guillaume has founded four ventures. He is sought after by senior executives of
companies like Alaska Airlines, the Gates Foundation, Generations For Peace, AIG, L’Oréal, Spencer Stuart, GAP, Google, Microsoft, and the US and French governments.
Visit MetaHelm, check out their coaching program, and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn.
FREEBIE: Download the Strategic Narrative from Metahelm! And, in the assessment questionnaire, mention the POP podcast, and get a free 30-minute call with Guillaume!
In this Podcast
- What a strategic narrative is
- The basic elements of a strategic narrative
- Opportunities for professionals to level up
- Common mistakes to avoid with the strategic narrative approach
- Guillaume’s advice to private practitioners
What a strategic narrative is
Most people think that history and narrative are identical … [But] there are ways to help our clients by changing their narratives … History is close-ended, it has a beginning, middle, and an end. A narrative is open-ended. It influences and shapes all of our decisions and actions on a daily basis. (Guillaume Wiatr)
The first thing to understand is the difference between a story, or history, and a narrative. Histories and stories are closed-ended, and they can be repeated over and over again, sometimes changed, but they are enclosed in the past. However, a narrative uses information from history but it is ever-growing. It can shift, change, and be used to guide the course of the future, especially when it is used intentionally within the present.
When you have this in mind, you can easily start picturing a system of things that you do, things that you say, [and] decisions that you make. The whole point of strategic narrative is to orchestrate everything you think, you feel, you do, you say inside your business, and outside [of] your business. (Guillaume Wiatr)
The basic elements of a strategic narrative
1 – Visionary leadership: Your ability to forge a mindset and habits for turning possibilities into realities. In this process, you will work to unravel your inner narrative and any story that is holding you back from doing what you aspire to. What do you not feel confident in yet?
2 – Meaningful marketing: How does your business find its true relevance in the world? How to keep your business relevant as a private practitioner:
- Think about your positioning and how you align your unique approach to what your clients really need and want.
- How do you build a business vision that is more than just what you want for your business?
[You say], here is the revenue I want to do, here’s how big I want it to be. If that’s your business vision, it’s very self-centered. The holistic business vision is about what is the greater good that your business is intending to produce? (Guillaume Wiatr)
- Publish and show up on a frequent and authentic basis.
3 – Purposeful operations: Planning and managing your business to a compass, like your perspective. This can make you more deliberate in your choices where you start to put your unique fingerprints onto the way you work.
4 – Look at sales in a new way: See the way that you connect with and help your clients with true benevolence, not forceful persuasion.
- Practice authentic outreach. When was the last time you connected genuinely with your client base to see what they are going through and what you can help them do?
- Make offerings that are meaningful and useful for others
- Don’t sell your expertise like a product or commodity.
We’re like lighthouses in our professions. Lighthouses don’t run over the island trying to save ships. We stand still, and we shine, and we stay there for whenever people need us, that’s the philosophy of selling expertise in the context of strategic narrative. (Guillaume Wiatr)
Opportunities for professionals to level up
A great way for practice owners to level up in their business is to offer services like memberships. People will come to you because they can sense and read that they can come to you for a unique way of looking at things that align with their values. This is an often overlooked way to grow your business because most of the time people will just release more content or services.
Open up a greater source of narrative power by offering memberships. Write down 5 to 10 golden rules of the therapy you provide. Take your business from that of a simple vendor to the level of expert, or moral authority.
Common mistakes to avoid with the strategic narrative approach
- Delegate so you don’t have to: you need to clear things off of your plate so that you alone can focus on the strategic narrative, because it is essential to the core of your business, and you are the business owner.
- Don’t let other people take over the process of doing your strategic narrative for you.
Guillaume’s advice to private practitioners
Align your purpose with the way that you do your work every day, because then you will see huge acceleration both in success and in its confidence. You will become a change-maker.
Sponsors Mentioned in this episode:
- Learn more about building a thriving private practice with Alma at helloalma.com/joe
- Visit sparrowsearchservices.com and mention “JOE” in your message to receive a $500 discount!
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Visit MetaHelm and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn.
- Text #40 to 231 422 0677 to receive our “40 Days to Full” text series!
- Check out Podcast Launch School!
- Visit Joe’s website
- Find out more about Listen Notes
Check out these additional resources:
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- Apply to work with us — a decision-making matrix for your next steps
Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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