I went to a conference recently here in Boulder, Co. on Zamu, which is a new ’superfood’ drink developed by John Easterling who is the founder of Amazon Herb company. John is single handedly doing some amazing work to preserve the Amazon rain forest and basically save the planet.

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There is nothing more inspiring than witnessing someone who is living their purpose and offering something so beneficial to the world. People like John are just glowing with energy and focus. He says it’s largely from the Zamu, which is loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, B vitamins, and fiber.

As a holistic health practitioner myself, I have also taken a keen interest in Zamu for both its health benefits and the mission of the company to preserve the rain forest and create a new paradigm of environmental healing and personal well-being.

Since I had a negative experience with another network marketing company a few years ago, I was convinced that I would never jump back into this business model. Like so many others, I was certain that the industry lacked some sort of foundational integrity and that it was best for me to stay away.

It was actually my wife who told me we should seriously look into what Amazon Herb and Zamu were about, as she had caught wind from her yoga community that many health-conscious, aware and purposeful people are growing in their passion for this company and for Zamu. That sparked my interest, as she told me of a few people whom I have a great deal of respect for who had started their own businesses with Amazon herb.

I was still skeptical, which I should just learn to let go of ASAP when it comes to my wife nudging me in a certain direction. When it comes to business, she has an intuition unlike any I’ve seen, meaning that she is always right. Yes, this does drive me crazy (I’m supposed to be the ‘business coach’ after all). After working through some resistance based on my previous disenchantment with the industry, I decided to give Zamu a try.

Here is what I have noticed:

1. There are a lot of people out there that are longing for a chance to be a part of something that is truly, deeply meaningful. This became clear to me right when I started sharing what I was up to with Amazon Herb, as I immediately brought in 2 people into my orgnanization and have many others who are genuinely interested.

2. I can’t say that I have noticed miraculous changes in my health, probably because I already take pretty good care of myself. What I have noticed is that I have a bodily craving for this product, almost as if my body gravitates toward it on a cellular level. I can just tell when I drink it that it’s deeply nourishing and that my body says yes to it.

3. I asked my daughter how she feels after she drinks Zamu and, I kid you not, in her exact words she said, “It makes me smile.”

4. After doing some deeper study of the network marketing industry, it has become clear to me that it is absolutely and positively one of the most powerful business models in existence. It is the most direct path to developing residual income and time freedom that is available to the average person.

5. 97% of the network marketers out there will never experience their potential in this industry for one main reason (which is one of the 2 reasons I failed in my previous endeavor, the other one being I just didn’t believe in the quality of the product enough). It all boils down to marketing. If you know how to market this kind of business, there is no cap on its financial potential. If you don’t, you’ll end up bothering a lot of your friends and family and doing things that make you feel uncomfortable. That is why most people don’t make it. You have to know how to market and the internet is the best way to do it.

6. You’ll need the right training to make this business work. As a business coach, I am helping anyone who joins my team. We will be holding mastermind calls and giving each other a lot of support. This is essential to success in this industry.

I don’t want to go into too much depth on this, but I do want to share with you my newfound realization that this industry can be a very life-affirming, positive, and prosperous endeavor. For me, it’s actually a healing process to let go of the bitterness of my previous experience.

In Amazon herb, we have a company that is committed to maintaining the integrity and health of our global ecosystem. We have a product that is certified organic and is loaded with nutrients proven to protect against aging, inflammation, and degenerative illness. We have a founder who I believe is doing the work of a saint. And we have a business model that can create personal freedom in so many ways, financial and beyond.

As with everything I’m doing on this blog, my sole intention is to help you experience purpose and freedom in your life. If Amazon Herb appears to you to be a vehicle for doing this, you can go to my Amazon website by clicking here. (It’s about $500 for the bronze package which is usually the best option to get started). If not, that is fine too. As long as you have some THING, some FORM in your life that will enable your purpose to shine through, that can lead you to a state of freedom– that is all I care about.

Kevin Doherty

author of The Purpose Principle.

Neurofeedback training is a process of overcoming limiting beliefs so you can step into a more empowering and abundant relationship with your life.

In case you haven’t heard of it already, take a moment to check out The Wilddivine.com meditation program that has been heavily endorsed by the likes of Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, and Dean Ornish.

neurofeedback training

This program is designed to induce deep levels of relaxation and concentration so you can create an inner foundation of clarity, balance, and energy.

Learn more about Wilddivine.com and discover how to create an inner foundation of harmony and balance.

Kevin Doherty

I want to share a few chiropractic practice management tips that should really help you avoid being a victim of the economic downturn.  Many chiropractors are struggling to make it in private practice, mainly because they are missing the right foundation that will enable them to succeed.

By far and away, the most important focus of your chiropractic marketing efforts should be on positioning yourself as an expert.  Think of it this way:  If you’re dong what 90% of the other chiropractors are doing to market their services, you’ll get the same results as they do–mediocre at best.

You absolutely have to learn to get creative in the way you package your services and attract patients to your practice.  Here are 3 things you can do right away to quickly and effectively establish an aura of expertise that makes people attracted to your work:

1.  Develop your creative faculties– spend 10 minutes every day in silence, simply asking for a new creative impulse to arise within you.  You can do this in relation to any problem you’re facing in your business or it can be a way of pushing the edge of innovation in your work.  Many thought leaders and geniuses claim that they a basic meditation such as this every day.  The idea here is that your creative genius is born out of a place of inner stillness.

2.  Create an information product for your practice– Consider writing a special report or e-book for your practice and using it for both online and offline marketing.  You can also offer a free audio recording, which for some people is even easier to create.  You can take a basic topic like 3 All-Natural Ways to Optimal Health and offer your info product to current patients, on your website, and at various networking events.

3.  Shoot a video informercial of your practice– This is a fantastic way to authentically sell your services.  Video is a great way to position yourself as an expert in your industry.  You can add a video to your website and you can upload videos to websites like Youtube which is a great way to come up high on organic search engines.  This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a 90 second overview of who you are, how you help people, and what kinds of approaches you utilize.  People respond very well to the medium of video, especially for service-based professionals.

What other ways can you get creative with your practice and position yourself as an expert?  This is where marketing becomes fun!  Not to mention that these are crucial steps to take for transcending the economic struggle that so many chiropractors are enduring.  Creativity is one of the secret keys to a lucrative private practice; always remember that if your practice is slower than you want it to be.

I invite you to go to http://www.ConsciousChiropracticBusiness.com and download my free conscious chiropractor starter kit that is full of excellent practice development and marketing tips.

Kevin Doherty is a licensed business development consultant to chiropractors who want to build private practices with integrity and awareness. He is the author of The Purpose Principle, Build Your Dream Practice, Online Mastery for Holistic Pracitioners, and is co-creator of the Practice Evolution Success Kit.

David and Kristin Morelli, creators and hosts of the very popular radio show Everything Is Energy, are hosting a free teleclass on April 22nd called a Quantum Leap in Your Wealth.  If you fee like you have money blocks that are holding you back in your business and life, this should be a worthwhile event to participate in.

You can register for this teleclass by clicking here. Enjoy!

Kevin Doherty

I’ve noticed that many of the coaching clients I have been starting out with lately still have an ‘old school’ understanding of marketing.  This means that they still buy into the approach that you should just run typical display ads or throw up a website that says something to the effect of:  ‘I’m great, take my word for it, and call me now to start paying me for what I offer.’

Now, this used to work–mainly because it was the only way to go about marketing.  This traditional marketing style is a big reason why so many service-based business owners HATE marketing; it feels like a hard/cheesy/inauthentic selling approach.  Conscious business owners don’t want to have to convince someone to do business with them.  They don’t want to force people to see the value in what they offer.  In fact, they don’t want to have to sell at all.

With the development of the web 2.0 world, there is indeed very good news for the entrepreneur who hates selling–you no longer have to!  No longer is it acceptable to try and sell before you have conveyed value.  In this day and age, the average consumer is aware of how much buying power they have.  They want you to offer them something first, something that requires no risk or commitment on their part, before they will pay for your product or service.

This is exactly what the web 2.0 world is about and why marketing has undergone a quiet revolution over the past year or two.  In this day and age, it’s all about getting people to interact and engage with you first.  It’s about establishing a connection before you sell anything.

If you’re a reluctant marketer, this should come as very good news.  You see, now you can offer value-based information as your main marketing strategy.  This can be done on your website by offering a free special report, e-course, or audio message to your web viewers.

Now, because so many business owners are stuck in their view of traditional marketing, the majority still don’t have an opt in form on their website to collect contact information in exchange for useful information.  (Hint:  this is critical to a successful website)

This simple feature of your website is oen of the defining factors of the web 2.0 world.  it’s all about the exchange between you and your audience.  Now, what this does is it builds credibilty, trust, and rapport.  People feel like they know you before they ever even speak with you. Your audience will decide that they want to do business with you because your information sells itself.  It’s a natural and effortless process.  Doesn’t that sound nice?

If you’re serious about creating a strong online presence, make sure you have an opt in form on your website and something valuable you can offer people for free.  If you set this up correctly, you’ll find that your marketing just got a whole lot easier.

Kevin Doherty

RE:  HOW ACUPUNCTURISTS, CHIROPRACTORS, MASSAGE THERAPISTS, AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS CAN LEVERAGE THE INTERNET TO GAIN MORE EXPOSURE AND ATTRACT NEW CLIENTS IN THEIR LOCAL AREA

I want to give you a brief overview of how to build your practice using various internet marketing strategies.  In this day and age, the internet can be your primary way of attracting new clients and building a thriving practice.  If you know how to market online, you’ll have a huge advantage.  If you don’t, you’ll struggle.  It’s really as simple as that.

All of these points are greatly expanded upon in my e-book Online Mastery for Holistic Practitioners which you can find at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/onlinemastery

1.  Get a website and add web 2.0 features to ensure it serves as a tool for attracting the right clients to you:  A whopping 50% of holistic practitioners don’t even have a website which to me is just pure craziness.  Very few of the ones that do have a site are utilizing the most up to date features including blogging, video, and opt in forms to collect contact information.  To enjoy a competitive advantage online, you want to implement all of these cutting edge trends!

If you don’t have a website yet, or you do but you aren’t getting much business from it, you can check out the Dream Practice web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage

2.  Article marketing:  Write a series of health-related articles and submit them to online article directories like http://www.ezinearticles.com on a regular basis.  There are a number of free article directories that will get your content all over the internet.  Do a google search on ‘free article directories’ and you’ll see what I mean.

3.  Social media:  You tube, twitter, and facebook are taking over cyperspace, as these are all some of the most highly populated websites out there.  I recommend setting up a profile on each of these and learn how to gain exposure and credibility on each of these.

4.  Joint venture partnerships:  Find other practitioners in your area who are offering similar but not identical services and contact them to set up a mutual referral system between your practices.  You can find all kinds of practitioners in your area on Google.

5.  Be sure to get plenty of back links to your website through directories like

• www.altmd.com
• www.holisticoption.com
• www.wellnessdestinationscentral.com
• www.acufinder.com
• www.psychologytoday.com

If you take some time to dive into the details of each of these strategies, your practice will greatly benefit.  Good luck!

Kevin Doherty

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net

The following is an outline from my teleseminar on 2/18/09 called Infusing Your Practice with Purpose and Prosperity

Why I’m doing the call tonight:

There is obviously a lot of doom and gloom out there with the economy. I’ve heard from a lot of practitioners who are feeling discouraged about starting or maintaining a practice. There is a lot of fear swirling around out there and many people are stuck in basic survival.

For me, the timing of all this is quite interesting, as I’ve just finished a 2 yr. process of writing a book called the Purpose Principle, which has just recently been released. What I want to do is share with you a few key concepts from the book and apply them directly to your needs as a business owner.

As much as anything, I want to offer you a sense of hope and inspiration from this call. It is very easy to get sucked down by all the negativity, so I think it’s really important to have the chance to absorb some uplifting and empowering information.

Now, I’m going to say something to you that you may not agree with, but I really hope it that’s the case that you have a shift in mindset by the end of this call:

There has never been a better time to be a practitioner of the healing arts.

Now, how could I say this with the down economy? Well, first of all, I’m witnessing it firsthand in my own businesses and in many of my coaching clients who have never been so busy.

You see, the success of any business comes down to positioning, which is how you perceive your role in the current state of affairs and secondly how your target market perceives you.

I want to start here by talking about your perceptions and how they are affecting your business. How do you perceive your role as a practitioner?

There are 2 fundamental orientations that you can embrace in your work right now:

1. The belief that it’s really hard to run a practice, that the economy is to blame, that people can’t afford your services, that you’ll need a second job, that change is hard, that you have to focus on your basic survival and not much else, that money is a burden, that success is random

2. The belief that you have something to offer people in this day and age that is so incredibly valuable and precious and that you sincerely want as many people as possible to experience this, that there are hundreds if not thousands of people around you right now who could greatly benefit from your work and who can make the sacrifices to afford it, that if you position yourself as a highly credible expert that there will never be a shortage of business, that your success is a choice, that money is a symbol of generosity and freedom in your life instead of just survival

So I ask you, which side of the fence do you lean on? What is your fundamental perception of what is true? And can you be really honest with yourself to expose any tendency you may have toward the former set of beliefs? Because we are all vulnerable to this way of viewing reality. It is the predominant form of expression happening in the world right now.

When I coach new clients, this is always the starting point in our work. I can usually tell within a few seconds whether someone has an aura of poverty or prosperity, victimization or purpose.

So one of the main ideas I want you to consider here is that your success as a practitioner is entirely up to you. It is a choice, regardless of what anyone tells you. If you’re in a receptive place, this will come as good news. If you’re more interested in holding onto disempowering beliefs, then you’ll likely resist this idea.

Purpose and prosperity will start to manifest in your life when you are sincerely ready for them. Until then, you’ll live out the conditioning of your upbringing, playing out old storylines and beliefs. This willingness means that you are ready to be honest with yourself and expose any and all obstacles that are standing in the way of your success. When you do this, you’ll see that your obstacles are not YOU. You can liberate them in any moment.

Yes, there are a lot of techniques out there for creating abundance and success. You can study the law of attraction. You can do hypnosis. You can do EFT. You can do visualizations. You can meditate. But none of this will work until you are willing to change.

And when we’re looking at our obstacles, we have to see there’s a payoff for staying stuck where we are. We don’t have to change. Attracting more money and success into your life often means that a part of you has to die—the part that doesn’t take things seriously, that is irresponsible, that wants to postpone what is important. Being stuck means we get to stay comfortable. And that is how most of us live out our days—and why most holistic practitioners never achieve lasting business success. They are not committed to change.

So, going back to our current economic situation, why not perceive this as a very powerful wake up call? A catalyst for your own evolution? Why not turn poison into medicine?

Instead of personally buying into the fear and stress, how about choosing to let go of any tendency to feel victimized by what is happening? Instead you can actually transmute all that distress into inspiration, wisdom, and abundance? Why not offer these qualities to every one of your clients? Exude these qualities energetically and in all of your marketing materials?

This is exactly why many of my coaching clients are busier than they’ve ever been. They are using all the stress and fear out there to their advantage. They are creating wellness packages with a focus on stress reduction. They are finding creative ways to promote this message. Now, the only way they can do this is if they aren’t personally identified with all the hardship. Instead, they are turning poison into medicine.

So, you have to be willing to see your obstacles to purpose and then set strong intentions to free these obstacles instead of dwelling in them.

This is the first part of the puzzle. Next, you have to learn to use your mind in a creative, non-habitual, resourceful way. A lot of people ask me about the law of attraction and how to use this force to build their practice. Honestly, if you don’t do what we’ve discussed up to this point, you can’t use the law of attraction. It will only be an egocentric game of trying to get more things to make yourself more comfortable. You have to clearly see your obstacles first, and then neutralize their momentum.

At this point, one of the most helpful things you can do is use your mind in a more purposeful way. 99% of what takes place in our mind is habitual thought. We replay the same soundtracks endlessly. And if we do this, we’ll take the same actions, and get the same results and circumstances over and over. It’s all part of the same continuum.

So what you can start doing every day, ideally to begin the day is to spend 10 minutes mindfully arousing the faculty of imagination to focus on what you really want. You don’t allow in any fear, distress, or lack into this exercise. You just rest your attention on your ideal practice, your ideal circumstances. Then you let it go. No attachment.

When you do this, you set a very powerful and intentional tone for the day. Your mind will become more lucid. You’ll awaken faculties in yourself that have been dormant. These faculties of imagination are your building blocks to a new way of living. They change your inner foundation, which will eventually lead to outer changes.

So every day, you consciously arouse a new kind of way of perceiving yourself. You choose to create a purposeful presence. Your practice becomes a symbol of this process. As you do this, everything you do becomes much more potent.

Then, every day, you commit to this regardless of what is happening outside of you. You choose to drop any resistance to what is showing up in your life right now. Instead, you neutralize resistance, which manifests as attachment to anger, fear, stress, and so on, and then you consciously put your mind in a purposeful place by focusing on what you truly want.

This is how you can use the law of attraction. It is actually a completely egoless process because when you do this, your focus is much more on how you can help others rather than how you can get more stuff.

So, let’s clarify some truths when you’re coming from this place of purpose:

• There has never been a better time to be a practitioner of the healing arts.
• I will not personally get attached to the negativity, fear, or pessimism that is running rampant in our society
• I can choose to turn poison into medicine and have my practice be a resource of inspiration to others
• My success is a choice
• I can use my mind in creative and purposeful ways to keep my focus on what I really want and how I can most help
• 2009 can absolutely be my most amazing and prosperous year ever
• Money is now a symbol of generosity and freedom in my life
• Whenever I find that I’m wallowing in stress, anxiety, depression, or doubt, I can choose to arouse a more purposeful state of mind simply by changing the focus from what I don’t want to what I do want
• All of this can be effortless because it is my natural state of being

If you want to learn more about building a practice with a purposeful and prosperous foundation, you can check out my new book The Purpose Principle at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

Kevin Doherty

Practice building coach

WEBSITES FOR ACUPUNCTURISTS– AN OVERVIEW OF WHAT MAKES YOUR SITE SUCCESSFUL

As an acupuncturist, I consider it to be absolutely crucial that you have an acupuncture website for your practice.  In this day and age, most people are turning to the internet to get the solutions they need for their various problems and issues.  This trend will only continue.  As an acupuncturist, you can market your practice in cost-effective and creative ways with your website.  Without a practice website, you will be very limited in your ablity to reach out and connect with you target market.

In my own acupuncture practice, I have consistently brought in 2-3 new acupuncture patients per week through my acupuncture website.  You can check out my site at http://www.bouldercountyacupuncture.com

This website has continued to work very well for me year in and year out, largely because of a few factors:

• It has been search engine optimized– You want to have a very qualified SEO expert do the search engine optimization on your practice website.  This will help you rank higher in the search engines like Google and Yahoo.  Because of the excellent SEO job my web person did, I can say with confidence that Google has been a primary influence in building a successful acupuncture practice.  You want these search engines to help you as much as possible, but you have to get your website optimized or else noone will be able to find you.
• It has a lot of content–  This site has tons of health articles on various conditions acupuncture treats.  All of this content helps move the site further up the search engines.
• The home page is organized, uncluttered, and provides a clear call to action–  The home page of your acupuncture website is the most important page on the whole site.  If someone likes the home page, they will likely get more information or even call your office.

Honestly, there are many details that go into making your home page really effective, not to mention your entire site.  I understand that as an acupuncturist, you may have very little interest in internet marketing or website development.  Frankly, I don’t blame you.  It is a vast world that requires some specialized knowledge.

This is why I recommend that you delegate this project to experts who do this all day long.  At Dream Practice, we have a website program that has consistently generated very positive results for our clients.  This program combines full website development with search engine optimization, and personal marketing help from me.  Many of our acupuncture clients are ranking on the first page of Google and yahoo for their acupuncture website, which is consistently generating new business for them week in and week out.

It really is a beautiful thing when it is set up well.  After all, you now have an automated marketing system working on your behalf 24/7 that will constantly promote your acupuncture practice.  What could be better than that?  You can check out our web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage

This package is very helpful for acupuncturists who either don’t have a website or they do but it isn’t working as well as they would like.  You can check out some of our clients’ sites at:

http://www.friscoacupuncture.com

http://www.tomjamesdc.com

http://ridgefieldacupuncture.com

http://www.balanceinsa.com

Feel free to contact me at info@buildyourdreampractice.net if you have any questions.

Kevin Doherty, L.Ac.

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net

The vast majority of psychotherapists were never taught the best marketing and practice building strategies.   This is the main reason why many psychotherapists struggle to build a private practice, especially if they want to run a cash-based practice.

How well you market your psychotherapy practice is the main determinant in your ability to build and maintain a high client volume.  If you take the time to learn how to treat your therapy practice like a real business and commit to your marketing education, you will likely experience a high level of success.  If you don’t, then your practice will always be compromised.

I know that, as a counselor, marketing may not be something that is of innate interest to you.  That was certainly my initial experience when I built my holistic health practice.  What I learned, however, was that the marketing of my practice is inseparable from the clinical aspect.  How you attract clients and how you treat them are part of the same energetic continuum.

What you want is a marketing plan that consistently attracts clients that are the perfect fit for what you have to offer.  As you know, this isn’t just anyone.  One of the best initial marketing steps you can take is to get VERY clear about who your ideal therapy client is.  Make a list of attributes that this person possesses.

Knowing who you are targeting is the foundation to all of your marketing endeavors.  Once you are clear on this, then you can create an action plan.  My recommendation is that you initiate marketing strategies that are low cost or no cost to begin with.

One of the first steps I have each of my coaching clients take is to build a practice website.  You want a psychotherapy website that will serve as the epicenter or hub of all your practice building strategies.  It is likely that there are many potential clients searching on Google and Yahoo right now for your exact services in your local area.  The question is, why shouldn’t you be the one they find?  If you know how to set up your therapy website so that people can easily find you, then you have achieved one of the most effective marketing strategies available to you.

If you don’t have a therapy website yet or you do but it doesn’t seem to be working very welll for your therapy practice, I would recommend the Dream Practice web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage

Honestly, there are a number of effective low cost or no cost marketing strategies for counselors.  You have to choose the ones that are most reflective of your interests and capabilities.  My ebook Build Your Dream Practice has a number of great marketing ideas to quickly build a cash-based therapy practice.  You can learn about this at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/ebook/index.htm

When I do business coaching for psychotherapists, one of the main objectives I try to instill right away is that success is a choice.  Every one of us chooses how successfully we can run a private practice.  Your success isn’t random.  If you make a choice to have a lucrative therapy practice, then what you’re saying is that you’re ready to be 100% responsible for your successes and failures.  You’ll see that your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are as much of a factor in your success as is your marketing campaign.  In order to empower yourself to choose freedom and prosperity in your work, I encourage you to check out my new book The Purpose Principle.  You can learn about this resource at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

Since it’s likely that you were not trained very deeply in business and marketing skills, it may be the case that one on one business coaching is going to be the most helpful and direct path to the actualization of your practice goals.  You can learn more about what I do for my coaching clients at:  http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/personalcoaching

And my most comprehensive coaching program can be found at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coachingclub.html

Feel free to email me at info@buildyourdreampractice.net if you have any questions or if you’d like to schedule a free 20  minute consult.

all the best,

Kevin Doherty