Let me paint a picture you might recognize.
You’re scrolling through Instagram, and you see another acupuncturist doing a glossy fertility reel with candles, soft music, and vaguely spiritual captions about “holding space.” Ten minutes later, you’re researching fertility certifications even though you’ve never once been excited about those cases in real life.
Yeah. Been there.
Back in 2012, I spent six months trying to replicate a colleague’s “sports medicine meets luxury wellness” model because it looked slick as hell on his website. I even copied his layout, hired the same copywriter, and rolled out the same service packages. You want to guess how that went?
I tanked.
Because it wasn’t me. I was running on borrowed conviction, chasing someone else’s North Star while mine was sitting in a drawer collecting dust.
That’s what I call driving a “Me Too Car.” It looks like every other car on the road—shiny, functional, trendy. But it doesn’t say a damn thing about you. Your values. Your skillset. Your voice. And in a field already crowded with noise, copying other practitioners is the fastest way to become forgettable.
Here’s the hard truth:
Most of what you see on social media is curated nonsense—carefully angled snapshots of the appearance of success, not the foundation of it. People out here coaching coaches who coach other coaches… you get the idea. It’s smoke and mirrors. And if you build your practice based on that? You’ll spend years rebuilding when it doesn’t work. Ask me how I know.
That doesn’t mean passion is bad. Hell no. Passion is the gas in the tank. But you’ve gotta make sure the vehicle you’re driving actually fits the road you’re on.
So, how do you follow your passion and stay anchored in reality?
You stop guessing and start listening—to yourself and your data.
What conditions light you up in the room? Not online. Not what looks good on a flyer. I’m talking about real patient wins that energize you.
Who are the people you actually love working with? What conversations do you want to be having in your office every week?
Then check your numbers. What kinds of cases are referring out? What services are actually bringing in revenue? What’s the feedback from the people who already trust you?
Passion is essential, but it has to be tested.
Otherwise, you’re just high on hopium, playing pretend entrepreneur in a sea of borrowed brand identities.
So here’s your assignment:
Stop following everyone on social media for 30 days. All of them. Detox your feed. Journal the work you love doing. Review your patient base. Do the work in your lane. Find your voice again. And if you’ve never had one? Time to build it.
Because when your passion meets your practice, anchored in your truth, that’s when you stop chasing trends and start building something real.
