Sohial sipping his favorite brew, Jasmine tea during one of his sessions
I sometimes wonder whether it was just coincidence or fate that I came across Sohial Farzam and ended up enrolling in his Pillars of Mastery Mentoring course.
Sohial Farzam and Hamish Reid flew over to Wellington to have a stall at the Acupuncture NZ annual conference to advertise their seminars in 2018. It was refreshing to meet a couple of optimistic and proactive practitioners eager to share their knowledge and desire for more practitioners to have an abundant practice.
Since that first visit, they have come individually to deliver seminars as well as together to deliver their Turbocharge Your Health Practice in 2020 in Auckland.
Lockdowns and restrictions in travel saw a lot more seminars being delivered on-line including Sohial’s 5 hour Practice Success Growth Plan. At the end of this course, he introduced his 4 Month Pillars of Mastery Mentoring.
Even in my early days in my practice over 30 years ago, I have known about the importance of finding and having a mentor and most positive self-development books usually also discuss the importance of having a mentor.
I never actually found a mentor but had many people come into my life to help my journey and improve me a lot. This including teachers, therapists and even patients who couldn’t resist telling me ways to improve my clinic.
In recent years I started attending various networking business groups searching and hoping to find my mentor. Interestingly, some influential business leaders from these groups took it upon themselves to “help” me out. It wasn’t the right time for me yet, which I knew, as some of these successful businessman’s suggestions included ideas like
– “You need to heavily discount your prices”
– “You need to get pens printed with your logo on it” and
– “You need to wear a tie at work”
…all in order for me to get a busy clinic. These people meant well I know, but they weren’t the type of mentor I was looking for.
Somewhere in one of Sohial’s seminars or webinars one sentence more or less was the clincher for me. The sentence went something like:
– “Are you overwhelmed with patients who ring you 5 times before making an appointment, then not turn up?
– Or others who cancel 5 minutes before their appointment two or three times in a row
– Or come once every six weeks and complain about your treatment that they are not getting better, bargain with you for discounts, don’t listen to your advice, forget to take your herbs and so forth.
When I started my practice, this was me and I had to learn how to change this. Now I charge double what I used to charge and am booked out weeks ahead“.
And here I was thinking that all these non-ideal patients who kept returning to me with different names were just coming back to me as a result of me torturing them in a past life in Atlantis :-).
If Sohial had had the same issues and was able to rectify them through a combination of altering his mindset and applying marketing techniques, then I concluded it was possible for me to change.
What did I have to lose by enrolling? On top of that, he even offered a money back guarantee after a month. How could I lose?
There may be resistance in some people as to the initial investment (in the scheme of things it’s very little compared to the substantial revenue gain you are likely going to experience) of the course and I accept that the timing may not be right for all practitioners. But if you consider the potential increased financial turnover outcome being increased by a third or even doubled (and that’s just one area of increase you will experience), it’s worth taking the leap.
Also think about the other advertising and continuing education costs that you wouldn’t even blink at. I have known of practitioners in the past spending 6K on an advertisement for the yellow pages and then only getting a handful of phone inquiries per year.
If this review could convince just one person to partake in the program, then I know the world will be a better place.
Well, what actually is an acupuncture clinic mentor?
Well according to Google “A mentor is someone who provides guidance to the student. This mentor is usually an experienced person in a specific field“. So in this case the mentor is specialized to someone who helps other acupuncturists. This is an actual course, incorporating mentorship, mindset shifts, personal cultivation, leadership strategy, marketing and mindful selling and many other avenues to increase self-development.
Sohial takes on the role of providing enough individual communication to support the participants on their way to a new level of success and independence whilst also running the support group of like-minded practitioners.
How long is the course?
The actual program is run over 16 weeks (4 months), with some extra lead up time for introductions and preparation “homework” so Sohial can understand the individual mental state and business state of each practitioner.
This doesn’t seem that long to be able to have a transformation but the work content and homework per say is packed in to set you up for change. Then there are also weekly LIVE Q&A sessions after each teaching module to consolidate, summarize and keep you accountable to make sure you’re still on track.
Is it new information?
It might just be to do with timing, as I knew or had heard about many aspects of the information that Sohial presented BUT never applied it. How many times do we say I know this but never really take action on it? Or that anyone can easily google any piece of information and find it but rarely does it come with experience and track record of proven results!
Myself, along with others partaking in the course had experienced changes within ourselves and started implementing strategies even before the course officially started. Sohial was able to explain the WHY as to how these ideas worked. This then helped to motivate and give courage to act on the suggested changes that Sohial presented.
How does this mentorship thing work?
As acupuncturists we know the old saying from the Nei Jing, “The qi follows the thought“. This is of course exemplified as the practitioner being “focused”, performing the treatment and allowing the “qi” to go where it needs to go, so the result can be obtained on the patient.
It took me a few weeks to realize that Sohial instead of being a practitioner for patients, he is actually the practitioner for the practitioner. His zheng qi, his will power, his positive direction or whatever you want to call it, is guiding the qi to restore the practitioners xie qi of the clinic business and mindset.
How is the course set out?
It is set out to run over 16 weeks with a few weeks lead up time where preliminary goals and background are reviewed by Sohial. There is some pre homework so to say involving questionnaires as well as some individual communication with Sohial.
Each second week there is a recorded training module that we access on-line. These are usually more than an hour long and then backed up with extra interview recordings that he has done with other past participants of his mentoring programs.
Then every week Sohial has live sessions with the group participants that go anywhere from one to one and half hours. These are Q&A sessions where the content of the module is discussed or if any other questions come up from the group. Sometimes participating attendees shares various experiences that have happened during the week and seek guidance from Sohial in appropriate ways how to react and strategize for them. Most of the questions that are brought up are usually relevant to all participating attendees.
Personal guidance during the program…
Sohial asks all attendees to join him via Voxer (a mobile app) so personal voice messages and questions can be sent to him. He was always very quick to get back to me. I often sent him questions that I believed were relevant to the group which he then compiled and brought up in the Live Q&A sessions. I know that others had more in-depth one on one discussions with him during the course and he was always there for them.
What are some of the Topics?
Sohial did say that this course is an evolving one so the modules may change for the future. When I did the course it started with Mindset, then Human Behavior and Emotions (ways to build trust and rapport), Leadership Strategy (expansion of the CEO mindset), Business Growth Mastery (all the nuts and bolts of running a profitable health practice), Listening Skills and Client Personality traits, Marketing & Prospecting for ideal clients, Mindful Selling and Handling Objections as well as Closing treatment plans and programs.
Added on BONUS Topics…
There are many additional bonuses that come with the program such as a full email marketing module, a full Facebook marketing module and how to optimise social media for an influx of clients and his colleague Hamish Reid (as some of you may know via the The Acu Guys Facebook page) also gave an additional session on Copywriting and how to use language and words to compel and maximize advertising success.
Sohial has a vast understanding and knowledge of marketing and reveals all the statistics so as to inspire you to actually use the strategies that the course delivers. Everything he delivers is exemplified with either cases from himself or from other attendees. What I like about Sohial is that he is not shy to confess his own short comings and insecurities which only helps strengthen the trust and bond with the mentor relationship.
Will it work for you?
I was very hesitant in enrolling as I “thought” I knew all about marketing but somewhere in that mindset of mine, there was a money block which prevented any positive change from manifesting.
I was thinking out aloud, the course will work for others but not for me. It was almost as If I was doing the course to prove that I was the exception and it would make no difference and I just had some kind of bad clinic karma to work through.
It reminds me of some of my past patients where they have already made up their mind that the acupuncture wouldn’t work for them or if it did work, then believe that the treatment won’t hold or last.
I witnessed all of the people in the group partaking in the course undergo dramatic changes and transformation. Anything from breaking away from a contract clinic arrangement and setting up on their own, putting up their fees, streamlining their work hours, setting up on line courses as well deeper seated money blocks being resolved. It was amazing to see in a short space of time these other people come out and blossom.
Can’t I get this information somewhere else?
Some people will say and tell you that you can get this course information from a few self-help books or some YouTube video. And you can. You can also go to Google and do some self-diagnosis and self-prescribe a herb formula. It’s usually not very effective.
What you are getting from Sohial (or any effective mentor for that matter) is experience and a track record of proven results. An imparting over 10 years of his own transformation and self-development success, knowledge and business intelligence. Of which the most important asset is the speed of execution. Sohial’s goal is to get you to your dream practice in the shortest time possible and in the most productive least expensive way possible. Somehow doing this course Sohial empowered me to act on all these success principles and if you can get that from a YouTube video, then by all means do it.
What you get with Sohial is his belief, his undying passion, his inspiration, his desire for you to succeed and ultimately his Qi directing you and rectifying the problem.
My increase in income over 6 weeks paid off the course. A lot of changes happened with me including
- A continuing 30-50% increase in revenue
- A cutting back of clinical hours having 2 afternoons off, longer lunch and later morning starts
- Charging a cancellation fee (and being paid it !)
- Patients booking up 3-4 weeks in advance
- A much more focused client committing to a course of treatment ( Instead of coming along for 1 visit to see what happens)
- Increase in fees ( And feeling comfortable with it)
- More energy and time to plan my next step
- Confidence in knowing I can go to the next step
- In summary, work less, charge more and be booked out with “ideal” patients
- But more than that, you learn that it is just not more money or more names in your diary that will make you happier, it’s restoring a true passion and dedication to remind you why you enrolled in this life as a healer, a practitioner, a true professional, and an authority leading clients to change and transformation.
The I Ching says, “There is only one thing that is constant and that is change“. If you are a stagnant practitioner and want to change, you will still have to take that first step. After nearly 40 years of being in practice, this course, Pillars of Mastery, is what I would ultimately recommend to manifest change and the sooner the better.
