Today is the 14th year that I've been writing on this blog. Since I took a moment for myself for my 13th anniversary, I'll bypass that for now because it's a bit too ingratiating to do it two years in a row; at least that's how I see it.

Most of the time when I write an anniversary post I pick a subject that's related to a specific area of business that I work on. Sometimes I try to capture it with the same number of points that I've reached in blogging years. I'm not doing that today; instead, I'm going to talk about me and my company: what makes us tick, why we do what we do, and why we're also a bit unconventional.

Why do this? Over the last couple of years, the conversation in health care has been about transparency. The conversation about doing business on social media has been about transparency. Although I think I'm fairly transparent, what I realize is that I don't promote myself or my business all that much.

Sure, I talk about leadership, diversity, health care and the like... I tell stories. But I never talk directly about myself or my business. In other words, I haven't branded either all that well. I recognize that even after 16 1/2 years in my local consulting group, 17 years of offline and online networking, 14 years of social media contact and conversations, and 17 years of owning a website and almost 18 years of self employment, I'm still answering the same question: what do I do?

The short version is that I'm a health care revenue cycle consultant with expertise in charge master and revenue cycle management. I'm a leadership, diversity and all around business consultant as it pertains to working with other people.

I'm an accomplished blogger and writer with over 6,000 articles online and off, three books, 2 major editing projects. I'm a professional speaker who's presented in at least 7 states on multiple topics, although mainly leadership and health care finance.

On the side, I've repaired computers, worked with small businesses on the search engine optimization, created websites and helped locals learn how to budget their money.

I have two video channels and almost 500 videos in total on YouTube, and I was the first person to create a video talking about hospital charge masters. I created the charge master for the 5-hospital system of the UAE in 2009, and I helped one hospital increase their revenue by more than 100% in 53 weeks (which came out to $730 million); I won't even get into the increase of cash.

I'll admit that I don't have a passion for any one thing in particular. I have both professional goals, and I'm going to talk about them and what I hope to do.

As it regards health care, it's my hope to help as many hospitals as I can find a way to increase revenue, increase cash, shore up policies and procedures as it pertains to the revenue cycle and help them be compliant. I've seen many a hospital where communications weren't in order, goals weren't established, procedures weren't created and hospitals were not only in financial distress but in danger of being out of compliance. Years ago hospitals were closing right and left, and my goal is to make sure things are as good as they can be so that can be avoided.

As it regards leadership, it also involves health care. The overwhelming majority of hospitals I've worked with have, unfortunately, lacked proper leadership. It's not that many don't try, it's that many don't have the training to be good leaders. Hospitals and other businesses have always given too much credit to proficiency when promoting people without any regard for their people skills. As a consultant, if one doesn't have good people skills nothing gets done. Whether it's group sessions or local seminars, an engaged person can always learn good leadership skills.

Diversity drives all good things in this world, especially in the United States. As far as I know, there are already 3 black and 3 women candidates (some are both) who've put their name in as running for president in 2020; that's astounding. When diversity is put in place and honored, only good things can come from it. There isn't a large business in America that hasn't benefited from the recommendation of a minority or a woman. Treat all people fair, if not equal, and that's the only thing that will bring all of us closer together.

As for everything else I mentioned... it should be obvious I'm not a one trick pony. I have a lot of interests, and if I can generate income from any of them then I will. I already have an audience in an area that probably won't generate a lot of income; it's my hope that this article helps me grow a larger audience from one that will.

That's all I've got for the moment. My name is Mitch Mitchell; I hope I get to work with you one day.