Well, 2009 has sure proven to be an interesting year, has it not?  As the old Chinese curse says, ‘May you live in interesting times.’

A number of our most established social and economic paradigms are going through a process of rapid disintegration, which is causing a lot of angst, stress, and fear for most small business owners.

Judging from the many emails I have received this year, I know that many of you reading this post right now have been hit hard by the recession.  Not only are many practitioners struggling with declining patient numbers and income, but there is also a clear sense that many wellness professionals are feeling disempowered during this time.

THIS HAS TO STOP!

And that is exactly why I am offering this teleclass this week called Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever.

From what I can tell, the economy is not going to improve much in the coming year.  Most small businesses will continue to struggle… most people will feel financially cramped… and most will buy into the ‘doom and gloom’ mentality portrayed by the mainstream media.

So, with that said, I have one VERY important question for you right now.  If you have not yet reached your financial and business goals, what are you going to do in 2010 to change this?

I am sure you are aware that you will get more of whatever is happening right now–unless you take some proactive steps to better your situation.

Now, here is why I am very optimistic about the coming year.  While most businesses will struggle, there will be a select number of you who quietly enjoy your most lucrative and successful year ever.

Who is this select group and what are they exactly are they doing that is different from the masses?  The answer is shockingly simple:

1.  These are the practitioners and business owners who are proactively, consciously, and consistently working with their own minds.  They are the ones who are choosing to let go of limiting beliefs, disempowering storylines, and any tendency toward a scarcity mindset.  While most of the world is steeped in crisis mode, these entrepreneurs see the current paradigm shifts as an enormous opportunity to help more people.

This person has the mindset of, ‘I will do whatever it takes to succeed and I simply will not stop until I reach my goals.’  In order to truly own this mindset, we have to be highly aware of all the obstacles we impose on reality.. and we have to be willing to step into the unknown and let those old beliefs die.

And when we do, I can’t even describe the shift that takes place.  We see that we are fully accountable for our own success, that we have the power to create whatever we want in business and in life–regardless of where we live, what the economy is doing, or how many competitors we are up against.

2.  These are the practitioners and business owners who have a strategic marketing plan in place that they implement on a consistent basis.  They take their practice seriously.  They want to acquire the skills and knowledge that directly lead to seeing more clients and making more money.

This is the kind of practitioner that wants to go out and network their practice.  They pour themselves into learning online marketing because they see the potential there to get new clients.  This practitioner loves sharing what they do in whatever way they can, whether it’s through public speaking, referral groups, or collaborating with other practitioners.

WHAT THIS ALL COMES DOWN TO FOR YOU…

Now, here is why I am optimistic in 2010– IF you acknowledge and embrace both of these factors for success in the coming year, there is NO WAY you can fail!  Your success comes down to your mindset and your marketing.  If you are really strong on both of these fronts, your practice will be recession-proof.

This has certainly been my personal experience and that of many of my coaching clients, as 2009 has been an amazing year for so many of us.

For the upcoming teleclass, I am going to dive deeply into these concepts and offer you some really powerful guidance on becoming a  fully empowered practice owner in 2010.  I am going to teach you how I personally have overcome some pretty thick layers of limiting beliefs (some of which is based on my book the Purpose Principle).  Then, I want to lay out a marketing blueprint for you in the coming year that is based on the highest leveraging, lowest cost practice-building strategies that have been proven to work time and again.

If this sounds interesting to you, you can sign up for the teleclass here.

I am excited to work with you and I can’t wait to hear about the changes you are making to get yourself aligned with your highest vision for a purposeful and prosperous practice.

Kevin

For the most affordable and effective practice building advice, marketing and personal development training you can find anywhere online, you can click here:

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and sign up for a $1 trial.

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.

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

AN OVERVIEW OF MARKETING AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FOR ACUPUNCTURISTS

Dream Practice Coaching specializes in working with acupuncturists to help them build successful and lucrative private practices. I have personally built two highly successful acupuncture practices and now devote much of my time to helping other acupuncturists achieve their practice goals.

This is done in a variety of ways. There are essentially three main obstacles that I see time and again when working with acupuncturists:

1. Poverty mindset—Many acupuncturists are taught from the first day of acupuncture school how hard it is to succeed owning a cash-based acupuncture practice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the following statements from students, teachers, and practitioners in the acupuncture profession:

· It takes at least five years to break even when you own an acupuncture practice

· You’ll never make more than $50,000 a year in the acupuncture profession

· You’ll need to have another form of work to supplement your acupuncture income

· There’s too much competition in the area I practice in

· There’s not enough demand in the area I practice in

It is tragic that so many acupuncturists buy into beliefs such as these. In my personal and coaching experience, your success is a choice. You can choose to buy into destructive beliefs such as these or you can choose to blow away such limitations and create the practice of your dreams. I decided to do the latter, even though I was so heavily influenced by these beliefs. What I discovered was that this is a very good time to practice acupuncture, there is plenty of demand, and you can make an excellent 6 figure income doing the work you love as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine.

Your success always begins with what is taking place in your own mind. One of my first objectives with new coaching clients is to help them shed limiting beliefs and embrace a solution-oriented mindset that is 100% geared toward what is possible rather than what is problematic. I have seen so many practitioners get out there and try to aggressively promote their practice, only to end up in the same frustrating place over and over. This is largely due to the fact that their mindset needs a serious shift. In this regard, I highly recommend that practitioners who want to practice with purpose and be source of inspiration to others pick up a copy of my book The Purpose Principle. You can learn more about this resource at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

2. Poor Acupuncture Marketing Skills— The vast majority of acupuncturists were never taught the most effective ways to market their private practice. My practice management class, for instance, was taught by a lady who owned a home business selling magnets. She knew nothing about the profession and very little about business in general.

How well you market your acupuncture practice will ultimately determine how busy you are and how much money you make. There is a lot more to marketing an acupuncture practice than just throwing up a website and doing a few talks in your town. Once again, I can’t tell you how many practitioners I know of who claim that they have tried to market their services, but nothing is working. Upon deeper investigation, however, it becomes painfully clear that the knowledge on how to effectively implement a detailed and systematic marketing approach is sorely lacking.

I believe that one of the very best investments you can make is in an acupuncture practice website, BUT this has to be set up the right way and there are many details that go into the process. You can learn more about the Dream Practice web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage or you can get a great overview on internet marketing for your acupuncture practice in my e-book Online Mastery at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/onlinemastery

While your website can produce amazing results if it’s set up well, you don’t want to rely on that as your only marketing strategy. Any acupuncturist needs to have a diversified approach to practice building. My e-book Build Your Dream Practice has a number of excellent, low-cost acupuncture marketing strategies that you can easily implement: http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/ebook/index.htm

3. Ineffective Patient Education—Many acupuncturists struggle with their patient retention. Their average patient will only come in for 2 or 3 treatments, which means their turnover is high and they have to constantly keep a high volume of new acupuncture patients coming in the door. Your patient retention largely boils down to how effectively you educate and communicate with your patients.

You need to have organized systems in place that are implemented for each and every patient so they know what is happening, what to expect, and how they are progressing. Most people need a great deal of guidance, or else they assume the worst. My upcoming ebook and audio series called Holistic Practice Explosion is largely dedicated to this issue of patient education and retention.

I think a lot of acupuncturists are still a little unclear how business coaching can help their acupuncture practice. In my experience, it wasn’t until I worked with a prominent business coach that my practice really started to take off. This coach filled in the gaps in my knowledge in so many ways and showed me exactly how to start thinking like an entrepreneur and business owner instead of only playing the role of acupuncturist and healer.

The beauty of what I can offer acupuncturists is that I have personally been where you are—I know the struggles and challenges of building a private practice. I also know what works and what doesn’t. There are very few, if any, acupuncture marketing and practice building coaches out there who have personally done what you are trying to do. And in case you haven’t noticed, building an acupuncture business is a unique animal. Many of the conventional business and marketing strategies that work for other businesses simply don’t work for acupuncturists.

In a nutshell, here are the main benefits that I offer to my coaching cients:

· Taking years off the learning curve of practice building

· Doubling or tripling acupuncture practice volume and income

· Reaching practice goals much more quickly

· Maintaining inspiration and purpose in your work

· Staying organized and methodical in your practice building endeavors

· Having accountability for your progress

· Creating multiple income streams within the practice

· Using the power of technology to create automated and very effective marketing systems

· Coaching around issues with confidence, self-worth

· Refining patient communication skills

· Brainstorming ideas to maintain a creative edge for the practice

The list goes on, but these are some of the main benefits I offer my clients. I will also say that business coaches tend to be very expensive, especially if they are any good. I have purposefully kept my one-on-one coaching rates low so I can help more practitioners. For a month of coaching with me, you’d need to bring in about 2 new patients to make it worth it. Most of the time, we can do way better than that.

Many of my clients begin by signing up for the business breakthrough session:

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/bbs.htm

You can review the coaching services I offer at these two links:

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coaching.htm

And my most comprehensive coaching package:

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coachingclub.html

I have purposefully cut way back on my private acupuncture practice so I can help take this profession to an entirely new level of credibility and acceptance. I believe that Chinese Medicine has the potential to change the world in profound ways. It all starts on an individual level. We need to get you seeing as many patients as possible so you can feel great about your profession and so more people will try acupuncture and experience the benefits.

There is only so much one-on-one coaching I can personally offer. When I’m full that’s it—and that time is rapidly approaching. If you are serious about creating the most efficient and powerful action plan to building your dream acupuncture practice, then contact me at info@buildyourdreampractice.net. I do offer a free 20 minute consult to discuss how I can best help you.

All the best,

Kevin Doherty, L.Ac., MS

Do you want more patients for your acupuncture practice? It all boils down to how you market your acupuncture services to your community. If you know how to market, you’ll do fine. If you don’t, you will struggle. It is really as simple as this.

Here are 3 proven strategies to market your acupuncture practice effectively. Implement these consistently and you should enjoy great success.

1. Creating a website that is search engine optimized, has a blog, and has audio and /or video. You need to ride the wave of these cutting edge internet marketing tools in order to capture a lot of your prospective audience via the internet. Having a plain old website just won’t do anymore. You need all of the above and you need an opt in form to collect names and emails for lead generation.

2. Set up one targeted lecture in your community each and every month. Give talks to support groups, churches, schools, gyms, and so on. As long as you do it well, this is a proven method to get people in the door.

3. Align yourself with other practitioners in your area. Establish a mutual referral system with a chiropractor, psychologist, massage therapist, and naturopath. Make sure you have a good team around you to refer to and you will see it come back to you as well.

I hope you take action and follow these 3 steps to building your dream acupuncture practice. If you’ll notice these are all low cost or no cost marketing strategies. You don’t need to dump a ton of money into advertising. These methods tend to be more effective and are much cheaper.