We created a win, win, win, win situation. Win for Philip to continue the opportunity to practice and generate income, win for a new doc to have a practice she could step into that she can grow with and eventually own, win for me to see the fruit of my decades of commitment to the clinic and our patients, win for the patient and community to have the continued resource of the clinic. When my book is published, there will be a lot of emphasis on ownership. How to create it for staff as well as calling for the responsibility of who has the most “skin in the game” … ensuring the weights of responsibility rest appropriately and owners can be inspired to value the team.

As I've been back in the throws of running a practice AND OptiMOM Coaching, the available time to write has been limited to say the least. Add the immense season of grief and the already full family life...I'm trusting the timing of delivery, imperative to ensure a safe experience.

My expression is shifting though, having just passed the year mark of Mom's death, I feel the season of writing coming again. Winter is passing...

Onward.

So here's what happened...mom died.

I thought I was "taking my hands off the wheel" of the ship...so to speak...

I thought I was saying "you HAVE TO OWN THIS, I DON"T OWN THIS this ship called a practice and so I can't make things right if I don't have the authority to steer it'.


You see, as staff...you can't won what you don't own...

you just don't.


...until you do.

.I’ve worked in the practice since 1989. After mom died in March, sooner than any of us anticipated, Philip (DC who I’ve worked for since ’89 and step-dad) couldn’t lose the clinic and Mom so asked me to own it with him. The clinic was capsizing under the weight of my parents’ health conditions. After my mother passed, Philip gave me equity in the clinic and authority to “right the sails”. 

So Creating the Chiropractic Experience is being given a new lens to look through. More next year after the ship has been "righted" and the journey onward is well underway. 

My neighbor gave birth to a tiny 6 lb baby last week...how very precious and just beginning to "fill in" with the meat on her bones. Another dear woman in my world had a 5 lb little the week before...limbs just barely the width of an adult finger. Miraculous, yes? These little gifts from the other side of the veil...these gifts that are already radically impacting "their world".

This book IS coming...this book, like babies with siblings, has been preceded by other works that are preparing it; giving it more "meat" on it's bones that will bring more strength when it arrives. My birth history is to deliver 10 lb babies; they cook a little longer, arrive a bit heavier and like all other gifts that come through us, create change. 

The latest news is that the book titled Creating Your OptiMOM Experience will arrive first. It will come with video workshops that support each chapter. This work will begin to frame the expression of Creating Chiropractic Experiences; a gift for the profession that will impact all who are willing to engage; fully or even just to be witness from the edges of it's influence. There seems to be a "preparing the way" dynamic that I hadn't anticipated yet am curious about...

I'm choosing to be fascinated rather than frustrated. Currently, the awareness sits with the clarification of my work at the clinic being "finished" as a CA before the book can come "out". Much like taking leave before birth, this baby will arrive when I truly step away from the practice. For now, I'm covering shifts and still seeing patients...mind you, I love them. I appreciate the relationships with them and am honored to empower their choices toward a chiropractic lifestyle; loving them where they are and supporting them regardless of their readiness to pursue a lifelong relationship with chiropractic. For now, I'll still step in to hold that space for them at the front desk...until I won't...and I'm aware that that day is coming soon.

​Onward.

Just that - "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou

This baby is real, it's forming and I choose to delight in it's continued development. No doubt, there is pain in participating the process. Each time we're showing the practice to perspective buyers I ache and we rehearse what will be...and we ready ourselves more. 

Thank you for checking on this story's progress. 

So for a moment, when I saw some really important work being launched that really does a super job of "asking the right questions" and providing a medium to share the VALUABLE and critical answers with staff, I got so tickled. THIS team of doctors is DOING my book concept. Hallelujah! It's being born, grown, and cared for. 

For a moment, I felt some "lack" for not having "done what I had felt mine to do for so long ...though knowing I've been totally obedient to trust timing and process, listening to the present moment nudges and innate direction for prioritizing my Great Work (contribution). YET , I didn't feel cheated or slighted. The recognition that the work must come was far more prevailing than me being the one to do it. After all, let's be Real about what's important, right?

THEN, immediately after the deep Peace came, the very easy release / acceptance that "maybe I was just to carry this baby until time for birth", I got the message that THIS BABY, Creating The Chiropractic Experience, isn't fully formed. It IS, mine to express.

You see, we just listed the practice for sale. Heartbreaking. My doctor has type I diabetes and it's cost on his ability to own and run the practice have compromised it's expression. While still a gifted doctor, too much isn't in his "ability to respond" appropriately...not able to be response -able for the OWNERSHIP of the clinic. 

He was still a student when I started working in the clinic in 1989. I'll stay through his career...that is part of the "fully formed" picture. I'm honored.

SO...not sure when THIS baby is born, but I can assure you it's still coming. For now, I'll still love and serve in the varying capacities that I'm directed in THIS season.  

For now, enjoy an interview I did on ChiroBusiness MoJo and a few articles on The Circle of Docs website:

• Moms In Your Practice
• Tell YOUR Story  ​
• ​It's Time to Freshen Things Up

To stay connected and to be notified when this baby arrives, sign up HERE.

Here's the thing...I know the book is "in me". I KNOW it's to be birthed THROUGH me and YET, I'm sensing it is still "being formed" through the work I've doing both at OptiMOM Coaching AND the clinic I've been a part of since 1989. It's an odd season for me at the practice. I've tried to be fascinated by it rather than heartbroken. My doctor's health is failing and it's been a CHALLENGE, to say the least, to watch this season unfold as he faces surrender in order to keep himself and the practice alive.

My role as daughter and CA has gifted intimate room for reflection, both for myself, but also for him to see what is happening. For too many, it's a season not thought of as you "build your practice". I'm valuing the experience as it's bringing enormous clarity around the "big idea" and "big picture" that we co-create in our profession.

Thank you for continuing to look for my work. It's coming. It's being formed. I trust the timing and know that this season will bring gifts that will be leveraged in the book that can only be gained from having walked through the "life of a practice". Soon, the clinic I've co-created and help run will belong, legally, to someone else (God willing) and I'll surrender it, still support it, and bless it for the wisdom it's deposited in me.

With gratitude to and for your interest and time,
Lisa Engle 

PS - I'm adding an email list sign up feature. Please add yourself if you'd like notification of the book's fruition. Thanks for serving our profession in the capacity you do!  You won't hear from me without a remarkable "movement". 

"I know that for me, I can attribute my well-being (social / emotional, physical, spiritual) to the chiropractic profession, lifestyle, and the adjustment. It taught me about integrity and making choices in alignment to my beliefs. I believe it can do that for your staff too.Do you?"

By Yours Truly
​: )

Read the full story here:

http://circleofdocs.com/innate-expression-of-staff/

It has BEGUN!
...again.

Dictations and notes that have occupied crates for over a decade are being sorted.
...again.

Participation with this "wave", this contraction, is resulting in "good progress" as my midwife would tell me.

Each step, each act brings this baby closer and my goodness, am I ready to have it OUT of me.
I'm tickled and ready for it to be serving offices all over the world in their authentic expression of chiropractic. 

This feels like a "strong one" and the contractions are lasting longer with shorter breaks between. Ladies and gentlemen, let's hold this baby's arrival with trust and excitement. When it's time to "push", it'll take your support.
​

Having had my share of babies and now having worked with hundreds of women who have had theirs, I can often be heard congratulating them on "not being pregnant anymore"...and they give me a look that says "YOU KNOW"...and I do. One day, this book will be "out of me", like my babies...and will live beyond me...largely because each DC and team will leave their marks all over it, filling in the template of THEIR innate expression of chiropractic.

I have relapsed into my seminar junkie days and have popped into a few recently. Life University is hosting it's annual CE event and I'm drooling already...

I write the update to simply say that I won't be pregnant forever, but for now, my days are spent still supporting my chiropractor and his team, serving my family (including a new granddaughter!), and facilitating conversations with many women via OptiMOM Coaching to know the picture of health they want to experience. I STILL TRUST the seasons and know the space for this will come...and I sense it'll be a lot like my labors, intense and passionate, delivering even beyond my hope.