Value, Integrity, Responsibility: the path to prosperity

With Guest: Lorne Brown

Episode Qi006

It’s really difficult to attract something that you actually have an aversion toward. Many practitioners have conflicted feelings about money, conflate marketing with dishonesty, and worry that material success is somehow suspect. Is it any wonder that for many acupuncturists having a thriving practice is something we both desire and at the same time avoid?

In this episode we look at how a stable thriving practice comes not from doing the “business things” we dislike, but rather from the cultivation of value, integrity and responsibility.

The “practice of business” is not separate from the “practice of medicine.” In fact, our business and the services we provide are as seamlessly integrated as yin and yang. Cultivating our business is no different from the cultivation of our medical skills, or any yang sheng practice we might have in life. And just as we see all kinds of problems in the conventional medical work when body and mind are split apart and considered separate, so too we cause all kinds of problems for ourselves when we image the practice of medicine and the practice of business to be separate entities. They are part of an integrated whole.

Listen in rediscover the joy and opportunities that can arise when we engage the practice of business!
In this conversation we discuss:
  • First you need to have and know the value of what you have to offer.
  • Who is your patient? Who do you want to see?
  • Marketing is not just about bringing people into your practice, it’s about cultivating the different kinds of relationship that make it easy for them connect with you.
  • Everyone is in business, but not everyone is an entrepreneur. It’s about attitude.
  • It’s hard to attract something that you tell yourself you don’t want.
  • People have to know you are there, the value you have to offer, what makes you unique and how they can easily connect with you.
  • Don’t join the race to the bottom by trying to compete only on price.
  • Integrity is key! But you already knew that, right?
  • Always have a call to action.
  • The value of your services has nothing to do with what you think, it is what the patient perceives they receive.
  • The difference between a business person and an entrepreneur.
"You got this! Grow your practice now and in the future"
Lorne Brown

Lorne Brown B.Sc., CPA, Dr.TCM, FABORM, CHt is the Clinical Director of Acubalance Wellness Centre located in Vancouver BC Canada.After a career as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Lorne received his Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Vancouver’s International College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Lorne has postgraduate training in Clinical Hypnosis, Infertility, low level laser therapy (LLLT) and Functional Medicine. He is the first Canadian to be certifies as a Fellow of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM.org) Dr. Brown has successfully integrated his entrepreneurial skills and background as a CPA with his passion for Chinese Medicine establishing a very successful fertility practice (www.Acubalance.ca) and pioneering online continuing education through Pro D Seminars (www.prodseminars.com)  and Medigogy.com as well as the Integrative Fertility Symposium (www.ifsymposium.com) for CAM Practitioners worldwide. Lorne published a practice management book for TCM practitioners called Missing the Point: Why Acupuncturists Fail and what they Need to Know to Succeed www.missingthepointbook.com

Links and Resources


Free business and marketing lectures from medigogy.com

Here are the books recommended by Lorne in the interview:

  • Practitioners Journey: the path to success for alternative, holistic and integrative health professionalsIt
  • Starts with Why: how great leaders inspire everyone to action
  • The Compound Effect
  • Think and Grow Rich
  • Drive, the surprising truth of what motivates us
  • The Happiness Advantage
  • Learning How to Avoid the Gap 
  • Missing the Point: Why acupuncturists fail and what they need to know to succeed


Michael Max

Acupuncturist, Podcast Host
About me
I've always been more drawn to questions than answers. And the practice of medicine seems to more lively when infused with a sense of curiosity and inquiry. It's been delight and honor to be able to discuss our medicine with so many thoughtful and skilled practitioners.