How Jigsaw Puzzles are Like Solving Client Problems

How do you puzzle? I explain my approach to jigsaw puzzles & how it extends to complex client cases & the ability to niche down in a successful practice working with my fave types of clients! Mamas who work out!

I’ve been back in puzzle mode lately (like OG pandemic days). 

Think about how you do a puzzle. We all have a different process, right?

First, I turn all the pieces upright. Then I get my border pieces and separate any other obvious colors. 

What’s hysterical is my daughter just dives right in, throwing caution to the wind! No borders. No order. All chaos. 

My son, on the other hand, waits for me to get it started and jumps in once I have the framework done. 

I realized this holds true to how I work with clients. I like to lay out all the pieces and then establish a framework, like the edges of a puzzle. 

I also tend to start with the low hanging fruit first. Let’s get some easy wins! Because that gives us great buy in! How frustrating is it to be working with someone for 6-8 weeks and see no progress? 

You start to wonder who the problem is, you or your provider.

Inevitably, you get that puzzle that has what looks like an edge piece, but it’s a fakey piece! Or you get two pieces that SEEM like they go together, but down the road you realize you just forced them to fit. 

The same thing happens with clients! But what do we do? Do we just throw out the whole thing and start from scratch? NO, of course not. 

When we get into complex problems, we really need to lay out all the pieces and see what’s working and what isn’t.  

If you’re a provider, you need to have a framework or a process that guides you how best to help moms. You can’t just start with random pieces and hope they make a picture in the end.

If you’re a mom, understand if you’re not used to looking at these problems, it can be easy to put things together that don’t make sense. If this is not an area you usually function in, it’s easy to find easy solutions that aren’t actually solutions. You really need to work with someone who is used to problem solving in this arena.