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And a Great Time, and Some Great Learning, Was Had by All
My head is still spinning from our Business and Marketing Workshop Experience in Chicago over the weekend. While I’ve already told you how United Airlines tried to ruin the experience for me, I don’t want that to overshadow the real outcome of the weekend; that is, that about 25 of us got together for 1-1/2 days of EXCELLENCE. My measurement of EXCELLENCE comes from attendee comments, but even more so from the things I learned along the way, too. It’s the interaction, the connections, and the shared learning that comprise my definition of excellence. Observations and comments: Our group was a marvelous mix of veterans (advocates in business for a few years or more) and newbies who are still thinking about advocacy as a profession. Our focus, of course, was on the business of advocacy (as opposed to the actual advocacy work itself.) We spent one day focused on marketing topics and ideas, although the learning of the day was peppered with topics that crossed over to the business of patient advocacy, too. We spent a half day focusing on business topics and, you guessed it, they were peppered with marketing ideas as well. Balanced and coordinated. Steve Okey, Ohio Patient Advocates, added to our list of the reasons someone might contact an advocate. That is, that when they call, they feel as if they have failed the loved one they have tried to support. They can’t do it all themselves. He explains to them that they have not failed; instead they have succeeded because they have called him. Great message. Steve also shared their experience with adding pricing to his website – a brand new and very useful perspective! Lisa Withrow, Focused Health, helped us reconfigure our master list of patient advocacy services, suggesting that both Hospice and Palliative Care should be broken out as their own “thing” – not to be included under Eldercare Services. We’ll be making that change. Yvonne Mossberg, Prairie Healthcare Advocacy, and Steve Okey (mentioned above) won the “branding experts” designation. They’ve both done an outstanding job of branding their businesses both graphically and…
