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

Chiropractic Marketing and Practice Management

Chiropractors generally seem to have a better understanding of how to market their practices than the acupuncturists, massage therapists, and psychotherapists.  My experience has been that chiropractors tend to treat their practice more like a business, which means that they make marketing more of a priority.

With that said, there are still many chiropractors who are currently struggling to build and market a private practice.  Many chiropractors are concerned that the economy is going to destroy their chances for a successful practice.

I have also worked with chiropractors who are still trying to use a lot of outdated and expensive marketing approaches and coaching programs to build their practices.  One of my coaching clients was spending $20,000 a year on a well-known practice-building program until he came across my Dream Practice website where he learned that he could implement a much more cutting-edge approach at a fraction of the cost.

As a chiropractor, you don’t need to spend $20k on some fancy coaching system to build your practice.  Many of these approaches use hard-selling, aggressive and outdated approaches, like doing free evaluations and then making the patient feel like they’re an absolute fool if they don’t commit to a long-term and expensive treatment process.

The chiropractors that I work with are committed to the path of conscious entrepreneurship.  They are not interested in aggressive sales tactics, unnecessarily freqent and lengthy treatment plans, or coercing their patients into care they really don’t need.  If practiced with a certain intention, chiropractic can be a tool that shifts people’s consciousness as much as it treats subluxations and improves pain disorders.

The chiropractors who are committed to this intention tend to do very well using the Dream Practice coaching system.  My approach focuses on a few key principles:

1.  Identifying your unique purpose in the services you offer– Most chiropractors don’t have any compelling and unique attributes that distinguish them from their competitors.  This is the foundation to all marketing– and when it’s not in place, whatever you do to promote your work will be much less effective than you’d like it to be.  To help with this, I recommend picking up a copy of my new book The Purpose Principle at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

2.  Utlizing online technology– Your chiropractic website can be the most powerful marketin asset for your practice, but only if it is set up right.  Your website should be consistently generating new patients and helping you to retain current patients more effectively.  You can learn more about my web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage

3.  Transcending symptomatic care– Many chiropractors are perceived as a sort of mechanic for the body; when a body part is damaged, go to the chiropractor to get it fixed.  My feeling is that many chiropractors are longing to offer something more profound and meaningful in their work, but they aren’t sure how to go about this.  This kind of chiropractor feels empty spending 5 minutes with a patient, giving them a quick adjustment, and sending them out the door, only to have them come back 2 days later when their spine goes out again.  For this chiropractor, success isn’t defined by how much money they make or by how many patients they can cram in the schedule for the week; it is defined by the degree to which they can help their patients make authentic and long-term changes that deeply impact their quality of life.

4.  Creating long-term therapeutic relationships that are based on the real-life evolution of the patient, not on maintaining care just because… that’s what you do when you see a chiropractor.

My main goal in working with chiropractors who want to become conscious entrepreneurs is to help them:

• clarify their USP (unique selling proposition)
• establish a very strong online presence
• create meaningful relationships with their patients through effective education
• generate a powerful word of mouth marketing campaign
• create diverse income streams within the practice
• leverage their time better so they have a life outside their work
• be perceived as the most credible expert in their local area

Once all of these objectives are implemented properly, I have witnessed many chiropractors build primarily cash-based practices– even in areas where everyone else is relying on insurance.  It is possible, but it takes a lot of clarity, creativity, honesty, and strong education/communication skills.

You can learn more about the coaching services I offer at:

http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/personalcoaching

and my most comprehensive coaching package:

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

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