Thursday 8 November 2018

What is your story?

Someone reacently asked me why I do what I do, this is my story.




Why I do what I do

Changing people's lives by changing people smiles and creating champions from challenges.

When I was 19 one Sunday afternoon in September my father drove me to London, to my halls of residence and to the beginning of my life at university. The following Sunday I was viewing his body in the chapel of rest, not knowing anything of his illness in the intervening week. That same day my mother threw me out of the house and told me that I was welcome any longer. Just before the end of the Christmas term I realised that what my mother had said was not just a reaction to the death of her husband, but she meant that I was never welcome back home. Just before my end of term exams I discovered that I was homeless and had to move out of my halls of residence. I was alone and felt like I had no one to support me. My years at university would the worst five years of my life, as I look back at that time I don't recognise the person I was. I'm not proud of many things I did or the person I became. During college, I worked hard and played even harder, and at the end of five years at an astronomical amount of debt. I was alone and struggling.

Within a few years of qualifying I brought my own practice and life became much better.  Then I discovered my manager was embezzling very large amounts of money. I discovered practice was technically insolvent. I had many staff who were dependent on me for their income, and I felt a massive responsibility to them and my patients. I was single with no family to fall back on, the only thing I had to get me through with my resourcefulness. Once again, I was alone, didn't know what to do, didn't know who to turn to and this time I had a mountain of debt.

I had the realisation that I knew how to deliver great dentistry and yet I knew nothing about how to run a successful business. There was no reason why I should do how to run a dental practice as a successful business, as there was no heritage of self-employment in my family and dental school does not teach business skills.

This period of my life was one of the longest and darkest times and yet the most rewarding. I was lonely, isolated, ignorant, frustrated and felt helpless much of the time. My free time was spent in seminars and reading, learning how to run a successful dental practice. I worked with a coach and implemented everything that I could. To this day, he tells me that what made me different from all the other clients was that I acted, and I got results. The truth was I didn't feel I had any other choice, my practice was failing, and I had to blindly trust that my coach and other mentors knew what they were doing, I had no choice. There were times, many times when I doubted myself and was distrustful of those around me. It was bleak.
My ignorance of how to run the business had repercussions in other areas of my life, I was overweight, unfit, drank too much alcohol. I cut myself off from friends and those I did see got the worst of me.

So why do I now work as a business coach, trainer and mentor?

I do what I do so  you and nobody else has to go through the ignorance, pain, frustration and loneliness that I went through.

Within a short period, I transformed a failing business into a profitable rewarding practice the staff felt was like belonging to the family and the patients loved coming in and kept returning and we were financially profitable and stable. We had created a fulfilling practice and balanced lives.

I transformed the practice because I learnt how to run it as a business, no ordinary business, one that put it patients and the team at its heart.

Dental schools still don't teach business skills and I have yet to find many other business owners who have learnt how to run a business before they go into business themselves. Each day I talk to business owners, dental principals and team members tell me they are experiencing some of what I went through, no money. Lonely, exhausted, disillusioned, frustrated and depressed, not to mention being unfit, failed relationships and unhealthy.  I passionately believe that this pain, frustration and isolation that you and so many business owners experience is entirely preventable, and I am here to heal it and prevent it.

Throughout my life, I often felt the only person I had to rely on was myself. Some of the experiences I went through could have broken me and yet whenever I thought things couldn't get any worse I realised I had a choice, to give up or to find the strength inside to overcome my circumstances. I believe that given the right support and encouragement everyone has the potential to lift themselves out of a poor and unhealthy to fulfil their unrealised future. Consequently, it is my mission to spend a minimum three months a year working in Third World environments transforming peoples experiences for the better, and an enabling individuals to become self-reliant and achieve their life goals.

Would you like me to share the wisdom gleaned  from blood, sweat and tears with you so you can take the short cuts?


Call today 07989 757 884 or e mail Jane@IODB.co.uk

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