Posts Tagged ‘Mindset’

Helping Others with Holistic Health

May 18th, 2011

I've yet to meet someone who has an interest in training in a holistic therapy who hasn't a passion for helping others.  That's the real motivation factor for most in the holistic health field.  So how can you help more people? How can you help more people book an appointment with you? Because you know your therapy can help them.  Well first of all it's necessary to help them come to a decision.  Prospective clients are looking at your brochure, website or business card for specific information. They have a problem they are seeking help, and it's that problem that's top of mind.  Does your brochure, website or business card "speak to them"? Does it connect with what they want, does it position you as the expert and help them feel understood?

When a client feels understood, it can be a huge relief to them.  That you are the answer to their prayers.  Think about how you can help your clients even BEFORE they become clients.  You see if they don't connect with you, it doesn't matter how pretty your logo is, or how professional your website looks, if they don't undrstand what you offer, if it's difficult to find your contact details, they'll probably not pick up the phone.  It's scary for clients to pick up the phone, to trust another person and go the holistic route.  I think sometimes we underestimate how difficult that can be for others.

So to summarise:

1. Make your message clear

2. Ensure your message is relevant to your target market

3. Each page should have one clear objective – what do you want each page to DO.

4. Remember, your client is looking for a solution – they actually don't really care what therapy it is, only that it'll help.

5. Trust is a big issue for new clients, so demonstrate your expertise, share testimonials, and have a keep in touch system so they can get to know you over time.

If you want to help more people, get clear on who you can help.

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Have you Great Expectations

October 13th, 2010

Have you ever thought about what you expect from life and from your holistic clinic.  When I say expect, I mean do you ever sit down and think or imagine how you want your clinic to be?

Are you expecting to be successful?
Are you expecting it to be a lot of hard work?
Are you expecting it to take a long time?
Are you expecting clients?

How do you want it to be?

This week I want you to take a few minutes, to ponder and reflect on your expectations, in life and in your business.  What did you find – Are they positive? Are they precise? Maybe you already have great expectations – you see lots of opportunity to build your business, and feel energised; or maybe you discover your expectations are a bit low, and you feel a bit lost or lack hope about the current environment.

But this is good if you do.  Think about it, if you discover you have lower expectations, this is one of the hidden vibes you are emitting to the universe about yourself and your biz.

If you didn’t know this about yourself, well, you didn’t know! By becoming aware of this you can now start to challenge that belief, and change that expectation. We have all experienced times in our life, like reading a report card from school that said “could do better” “not sporty enough” or “is better suited to sports”, “not good at math” etc etc.

Are those past definitions of you from someone else still influencing your expectations for your futures?  Your past is not your future. Don’t let someone else define what you can or cannot do.  We hear the phrase on advertisements for pensions and investments – “past performance is not an indicator of future performance!”  However, we often remain stuck by those past teachers’ definitions of our performance, and those past events.  They are GONE.  Say no to that bully in your head that still defines you, that holds you back. Allow yourself to let go, to go for what you want and follow your dreams.

Write a list of your now high(er) expectations. People who set goals know that in order to get what they want they have to write it down.  Most people don’t write things down.  Most people don’t get what they want.  In fact you more than like already know this, it’s not exactly new!  But knowing something, and truly understanding something are two different things.  Truly knowing comes from taking action, from experiencing it for yourself.  Our words are powerful, writing things down is powerful.  When you link your thoughts with purpose, that is powerful.

I heard Zig Ziglar speak this weekend, wow, (with lots of other powerful speakers too), and he said: “encouragement is all important, it’s the missing ingredient in so many lives. Most people never hear an encouraging word”.   So sad. We often lack encouragement from a teacher, family, in work, from friends. 

As holistic practitioners we want to encourage our clients to make healthier choices.  So today, I encourage you to sit down and think about your expectations, your goals and your first step.

Please add your thoughts below if this post has helped you.

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Demolish your Doubts of your Dream to make a Difference

September 23rd, 2010

Or have you too many detractors in your life that want to keep you with the status quo, from dreaming big?

What is your dream? What were you put on this earth to do (and let me point out it wasn’t just to exist, get a job and then die).  Think about what makes you special, just as you are.  Don’t wait till – you’re perfect, till timing is perfect, till your weight is perfect, or till your clinic is perfect – don’t wait for anything.

In Napolean Hill’s Think And Grow Rich, chapter 8 is on the topic of Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination.  It’s the Seventh Step toward Riches and here’s the first paragraph:

“Accurate analysis of over 25,000 men and women who had experienced failure, disclosed the fact that LACK OF DECISION was near the head of the list of the 30 major causes of failure. This is no mere statement of a theory – it is a fact. Procrastination, the opposite of Decision, is a common enemy which practically every man must conquer.

… People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, IF AT ALL, very slowly, and of changing these decision quickly and often.”

Make a decision today as to the first few steps you can take to be successful – the gurus often say, you have to make a decision to succeed.  Which on the flip side means that if you’re not choosing to succeed, you must be choosing defeat or failure instead?  I don’t believe that. We certainly don’t consciously set out to fail. But each day we choose not to make a decision but instead procrastinate or let our dream slide, thse decisions affect how our dreams will manifest in the future.  So at one level we have to decide each day what can be done to get closer to the lifestyle we dream about.  Your clients too have to make a decision to come and see you for your help with a particular health problem.  Do you make that easy for them to do that?

How much do you want to make a Difference?

If you do, then I encourage you to take a decisive action about who you surround yourself with, and who you listen to.  Everyone needs support in business.  Anyone who runs a successful business has support in some shape or form.  How often do you doubt your abilities, and dampen your dreams.  How often do friends, family, colleagues gladly give their opinions on what we should be doing, or on our new website, or newsletter design – but I hasten to caution – be careful not to treat those opinions with the same significance as we would a professional opinion. Being swayed by others opinion, will not help you reach a decision.

For example, if tell my friends I’m going to a conference in the US about marketing, and they look at me as if I’ve two heads – and ask, isn’t that expensive?  Are you sure that’s a good idea? What do you need to do that for? You know the sort of thing.

Be kind to yourself, because it’s so easy to look at our lives and feel disappointed at times.  I want you to declutter your mind of all that negative self talk.  We often block our own path to success because deep down we feel we aren’t good enough, or believe we can’t make money, or even feel a bit of a fraud to dish out advice since our own health isn’t perfect.  Or maybe you’re disappointed because you’ve already tried getting the word out but there are just so many reasons why it’s difficult to grow a practice right now.

The brain is amazing, and I’d like to share with you a technique I have been trying out recently.   I know you’re aware of allllll the reasons why it’s difficult to grow your practice, attract clients and be successful.  Maybe you obsess about it? Those reasons or beliefs can hold us back (whether true or not), and I want to encourage you to have a detox this week.  Not of a junk food detox, but a junk “reasons” detox.

OK?

Instead of thinking of all the reasons why you aren’t successful at building your practice, or growing your business further, I want you to think of all the reasons why you ARE successful.

You know the way a book title, name or other detail completely goes out of your head, but given time, it  suddenly pops back in (when you’ve allowed your brain to “find” it)?

The brain is amazing, and when you ask it to do something, or ask it a question, it’s going to concentrate, focus more easily and notice what you’ve asked it to notice.  (like when you buy a blue car, and then you notice blue cars everywhere?)  So why not focus on good reasons why you are successful rather than all the reasons you are not successful.  It’s not important that you get an answer as such.  Just that your brain will be forced to start focussing on why you are successful (in whatever endeavour) rather than things you feel powerless to change.

So if your life is not currently on purpose, think about what is your destiny and how can you get closer to your life purpose.

Each of us has a dream. It drives us, gives us hope and even courage to keep moving forward.  Find that inner resource of determination to bring the strength to continue when time, circumstance and other reasons seem against us.  We will all have difficulties at some time in our life.

Your clients have difficulties too. Maybe difficulties that you have experienced too. A client buys from someone who feels they understand them.

And finally, what promises can you make to your clients about your therapy and your service?  When you deliver on your promises, clients will return, and will also refer you to others too.  In fact, I’ll edit that a bit, under promise but over deliver! Helps clients to feel special, and who doesn’t want to feel special?

Let me know how you get on focussing on all the reasons you ARE successful, by commenting in the box below.

Thank you for filling out the application form the other day.

I’m delighted to offer you a Business Breakthrough
Coaching session with me.

To check availabile times, and to chose the
best one for you please click on the link below.

This brings you to an online time
scheduler (saves the back and forth emails).

https://my.timedriver.com/FFMSS

I look forward to hearing from you.

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How to charge for multiple treatments

July 21st, 2010

I got a question recently from a subscriber.

I’m sharing it with you because I think it’s important to discuss the various issues it raises. Here’s the question:

What do you recommend when a client requires more than 1 treatment in a week e.g 2 or 3 – would you reduce the fee or leave it?

There are several ways to look at this question, and various ways to answer it too!

So here’s my take on this: Sometimes acute clients do need shorter times between treatments for 1 week or 2. I would ask you, how often does this happen? Is it a rare occurance or are you seeing clients who regularly need more than one session a week?

If this happens regularly, then you might like to offer a “3, 6, 10 treatment” package that clients can use over a short period of time or a longer period of time. Call it your “fast track to … better health/weight loss/clearer thinking/more energy” for example.

Underneath this question though may be a fear about the client not being able to afford your fee, or a worry about “overcharging”.

We are often more concerned about this than the client! However, they know their financial situation – you don’t. You also don’t know their priorities. Maybe you’re going to be able to solve the very thing they’ve fretted over, been in pain about, for YEARS and your solution is what they’ve been searching for and probably paid thousands trying to solve already.

Why would you deny them the best service – the best service being you need to see them 3 times during one week? I like to offer clients a 3 treatment commitment package – they are commiting to coming for 3 treatments and by pre-paying they get a discount. Making a commitment to their health, helps the treatment be more successful. (By the way, this also helps to reduce “no shows”). They of course have the option to just book for one session, and pay as they go, but by offering it they can decide.

Essentially if you do want to discount for multiple treatments be sure of your reasons. If it’s out of fear that the client won’t come back, or, you think they will think you’re doing this “for the money”, then you’re coming from the wrong place.

Be proud of what you can do for your clients, offer them the best option, and give them enough information so they can make a decision. Ultimately it is they who will decide how to spend their money. Treatment spacing is an important part of your overall plan.

No one likes to “SELL”, and people certainly don’t like to be “sold” (but remember people do love to buy things… especially something that will be of great help to them).

At the end of the day, whether you offer a discount or not, it has to sit with you right. But don’t feel you HAVE to offer a discount, but if you decide to, make sure you’re coming from a place of service, not of fear.

Hope that helps!  Let me know what you do in this situation

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Goals and Your Surroundings

May 20th, 2010

How Important Are Your Surroundings?

Remember that your surroundings, your environment and your community will play a very important role in determining your success.

Have you ever heard the expression

“It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys”?

There is a lot of truth in that statement.  If you are surrounded by negative influences you cannot expect to fly high and achieve your aims based purely on positive energy.

It’s much easier to follow the trends of the majority. It’s much easier to let the overwhelming negative energy infiltrate your fortress of optimism than it is to convert others to your viewpoint.  This not only applies to people but also to places and things.

For example, if you dream of becoming an actor but don’t want to leave your hometown in favor of Los Angeles, then you are fighting against the environment. If you want to become more physically fit but only have friends that over-eat and deride your goals, then you’re constantly going uphill to reach even the easiest steps.  If you want to stop using drugs and alcohol but stay inside neighborhoods that have high crime, then it’s a losing battle.

You must be able to identify negative influences, whether these influences are people, places or things, and then remove yourself from the situation.  Sometimes negative messages are overt, such as a person telling you that you will not succeed.  However, negativity can also be subtle—from a condescending look by one to even the proliferation of stereotypes that we get from TV and movies.

When we live and grow in a negative environment, we tend to become like the people and the community around us.  Just think of all the good people who became criminals because of their negative childhood influences.  Because of a misguided education, they could never break away from these vices and from the lifestyle.

Not only must you try and remove yourself from the negative influences, but you must put yourself in a more positive setting.  You want an environment that can encourage you to reach your goals.  That might mean making new friends or even moving into a community that shares your values.

If a vegetarian is having trouble resisting meat, he or she will seek out association with other vegetarians or vegans for moral support.

Your community—which includes your circle of friends, your continuing education and your choice of entertainment—will shape who you become.  Remember this as you decide to make necessary changes in life.  If you are unwilling to part ways with negative influences then you will probably not succeed.  It may be time to re-adjust your goals to a more a realistic outcome; not different from your surroundings, but just a tad better than the majority.

In this case you would be an over-achiever, not someone who is going against the tide.

More On Goals – read more…

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