BLOG HEIST

CHANGE IS SCARY!

 
I am a firm believer in asking for forgiveness rather than permission when it comes to helping someone.
I guess that’s my way of saying, Bob “Sorry not sorry!”
 
CHANGE IS SCARY!
Change of any kind really. Change in employment, changes in health, new diagnosis, loss of those you love, let’s be honest, we crave routine.


I am a creature of habit. I didn’t have much structure or organization growing up, so I yearn for structure as an adult. I find I thrive in structure and falter in chaos.

Currently, I am in a period of change….and it’s scary as shit.

Let me take you back to 2007.

I was in grad school. We had clinic sessions where we would treat the client with a camera in the room and our supervisors on the other side of a TV streaming in our attempts at being clinicians.
Our supervisors would give up feedback on our sessions.

(Here is a lesson on the impact of words)

After one of my sessions, the feedback was that I was “too enthusiastic when my clients did something correctly, and it took away from the session. “

To be honest, to this day I know fully know what that meant but it clearly struck a nerve.

Jump forward to 2008

My best friend in grad school and I went to ASHA. It’s basically a conference where you can learn new stuff in the field and either see what you are going to look like in 10 years or that you should really be mindful of how short you cut your hair and how many turtlenecks you buy.

So moving on…

I was in the convention hall walking around when a recruiter came up to me and asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated. I replied that I wanted to work in the hospital and get “really good at something.”

The recruiter championed my goals by telling me it was really hard to get into medical and that there wasn’t much room for advancement.

She tried to sell me on schools and travel and the world….no thanks!

I walked away and thought, “I’ll show you!”

Ha! That recruiter didn’t give two shits whom she was talking to and I let her take up real estate in my brain for WAY TO LONG!

Now we are going to jump back to April 2022.

I was heading back from a conference when the owners of the company I had been with for seven years called me and basically told me I needed to discharge all the patients I was seeing in their homes because it wasn’t really “lucrative”! They specifically mentioned one of my patients, who had passed a couple of days before. I was really upset because first of all, gross, and second because you know what’s not lucrative? Me being paid 1/3 of what you charge.

I asked them to give me two weeks to think about it. I was still traveling home and started texting a couple of therapists that I know have a solo proprietor LLC. I asked them how hard it was to get their Medicare provider number. Then I decided, before I got home, I was going to call them back and ask if we could meet next Thursday.  

I got right to work, started an LLC, started /completed my Medicare application, ordered business cards, got professional liability insurance, picked my documentation system, got a financial /bookkeeper, HIPPA-compliant fax line, and opened a business bank account.

So, when Thursday rolled around, I gave them my 30-day notice and told them what I was doing. I was able to get an agreement that I was able to take all my patients with me and those in Independent Living could make a choice to go through them or me.

SO! Here we are in February of 2023. 

I am about to turn 39 and my best friend and I are expanding what I have already started and building it into our vision of what we think healthcare services should look like and into an environment that makes us excited and happy.

FEAR

I would be misleading if I said I wasn’t sacred. I AM! This is a big risk on many levels. But, it’s worth it. The gratification and fulfillment I feel, when I help people, and they are proud of themselves, is worth so much more than the fear I feel.  Each of the examples I provided were needed checkpoints to help me re-evaluate my WHY, my WHERE, and my HAPPY.

1.)    I am enthusiastic AF and my patients love it!
2.)    I am specializing in Parkinson’s
3.)    I’m opening a business with my best friend and our model is going to act as a template for the way therapy services SHOULD be provided.   

Change can be hard, but the output can be beyond what you imagined.

Bob is going to take a little time off from writing his BLOG to restructure.

He will be back sooner than later 😊

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