Therapist Business School

In case you have not heard, Sandra De Freitas, the tech coach, is offering another installment of her 90 day program called “Coaches Start Up.” In this program, she’ll teach you how to do all the techy stuff that you have been intimidated to try in plain English! When I was first starting out, I was so overwhelmed by all of the tech stuff and confused about what to do first. Luckily, I came across the tech coach. It literally changed my business life. Sandra explains everything and when you get really stuck, she can just take over your computer and fix it right up! She is one of the few tech people I know who actually gives you one on one time as part of her program.

As part of the course, you’ll learn:

• What a Marketing Funnel is and Why You Need One
• Why You Must Have a Newsletter
• How to Produce and Disseminate your Newsletter
• What a Pink Spoon is and How You Can Develop One Quickly and Easily
• How to Design and Deliver Teleclasses
• How to Create a Website Quickly and Easily
• How to Accept Payments over the Internet
• How to Write an E-Book that Sells
• And More

To find out more about this exciting program, please visit Sandra
here. 

The 4 Hour Workweek is getting all sorts of attention these days. The following is my review of this hot, new book!







Step 1: D is for Definition

In this section, Timothy teaches us that we need to consider lifestyle design. Basically, everything we think we know about building a business and making money is wrong! He says we should be doing a minimum of work with a maximum of efficiency. He is totally against the 80 hour workweek! He says we should be have more periods of fun - he calls these mini-retirements- through out our lives and that real riches and freedom come from flexibility in where and when you work. What keeps us from realizing our dreams of living in Tahiti? He says it is good, old fashioned fear, and he has a chapter that is devoted to overcoming fears. In another chapter, he helps you figure out exactly what your dream life looks like and how to finance it.

Step 2: E is for Elimination

This is actually on of my favorite parts of the book. He spends several chapters teaching you how to get rid of time wasters including life sucking clients. In a radical move, he suggests going on what he calls a low information diet. I must admit to being guilty of this. I probably spend too much time finding out what is going on in the world - and most of it is simply information that I don’t need to know. I should be more selective. He also says to be wary of interruptions like the phone and email, and he gives several pages of tips on how to do this.

Step 3: A is for Automation

This chapter has a lot in common with Andrea’s book except that he goes much further. He talks about outsourcing as much of your life as possible and he names specific agencies that will help you. He is a huge proponent of hiring workers from India to solve many of your problems. They can do everything from design webpages to handle customer service, and it is probably 1/4 the price of U.S. workers. He spends quite a few chapters on putting your income on autopilot. You’ll find lots of interesting ideas here, some useful and some not.

Step 4: L is for Liberation

Now it’s time to unshackle yourself from your desk and get out into the world! He embraces the notion of mini-retirements and sabbaticals and he makes a compelling case for not saving it all up until they end of your life. Go ahead ad have some fun, now! Make no mistake, he is not advocating lazing about. He wants you to have adventures and do different types of work (like volunteering) or whatever else is near and dear to your heart.

Should you buy this book?

I give it a resounding yes. Much of what he says seems off the wall, but it makes total sense when you see the way he puts it all together. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I’m making changes even as we speak. Granted, I have a long way to go, but his ideas certainly intrigue me! Check it out:

I hope you enjoy this read!

Dr. Tricia A. Cardner

One of the things that I hear most often is that therapists and coaches is
that they want to have a full cash based practice.  This can be difficult
to achieve, particularly if you rely on one on one sessions with clients. 
There is a book out that has been around since 2004 that is filled with good
information on how to develop multiple streams of income.  This wonderful
book is entitled
Multiple Streams of Coaching Income.  For this post, I’m going
to review this book and hopefully you too will see what a great resource it is!

Section 1: Setting the Stage

In this section, Andrea teaches us that we must get out of the small box that
we have put ourselves into.  What she means is that we have very limited
views of how we can help people.  We need a paradigm shift and we need to
consider the fact that there are many ways to help people that can include: tele-classes,
e-books, membership sites, CDs, MP3s, video recordings, group sessions,
individual sessions, etc.  She also notes that coaching is evolving from
just a service to a product or at the very least to a service/product hybrid. 
To take advantage of this, you need to decide what problems your
coaching/therapy solves.  Andrea gives a specific formula for creating
multiple streams of income.  It is:

Niche+Problem+Format =Your
Program/Product/Service

To make the most of this equation you should:

1. Pick a niche market;

2. Identify a key problem;

3. Choose a format to solve the problem

Section 2: Marketing

Andrea uses a classic therapy technique, the reframe, to teach
you how to market.  Marketing, she says, is simply an advanced form of
communicating or relating.  Your job is to provide your niche market the
answer or solution to their problems that they have been seeking.  If you
approach your practice in this way, people will be very excited to learn about
you and what you have to offer.  All marketing is simply communicating what
you have to offer and what problems you solve. 

Probably the most important part of this book is where she shows
you how to set up a product funnel.  Your product funnel starts with some
freebie item that helps people become familiar with you and your offerings that
she calls a pink spoon offering (just like the ice cream shops)!  The
beyond that you should have several different offerings at several different
price points.  Basically, the more time a client gets with you personally,
the more the service/program costs.  Thus, a one on one program costs a
great deal more that a CD recording of one of your teleclasses. 

Section 3: Streams of Coaching Income

In this section Andrea goes over the various ways you can make
money with your practice.  She includes:

1. ebooks

2. ecourses

3. print books

4. online memberships

5. live trainings and workshops

6. teleseminars

7. coaching programs in a box

8. day jobs

9. affiliate programs

10. coaching gyms

11. multimedia coaching

Why You Should Consider Buying This Book

Andrea J. Lee does a great job of getting you to shift the way
you look at marketing and "selling."  If you have been taught that you
should see most of your clients one and one and that’s not working for you, this
is the book for you!  I like the way she spends time helping the reader get
rid of "stinking thinking."  I also appreciate the time she spends on
niching as this is vitally important to building a successful practice. 
Her book is just as relevant for therapists as it is coaches.  While the
entire book is a great read, the section that includes all the various products
that you can offer was extremely enlightening to me.  I had not thought of
many of these items prior to reading her book.  Now that I have embraced
these concepts, I see that I can build a multiple streams practice that is
managed care free!  I think you’ll see that you can do it too! 
Multiple Streams of
Coaching Income is only $24.95, 325 pages. 

Dr. Tricia A. Cardner

I have found this circulating on the internet, and I’m not sure who the original author is (if you know can you drop me a line and let me know so I can give credit). It is a real hoot! I hope you enjoy it and get a good laugh from it

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives

Then using God’s great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, “You want chocolate with that?” And Man said, “Yes!” and Woman said, “and as long as you’re at it, add some sprinkles.” And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, “Try my fresh green salad.” And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, “I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them.” And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it “Angel Food Cake,” and said, “It is good.” Satan then created chocolate cake and named it “Devil’s Food.”

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald’s and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, “You want fries with that?” And Man replied, “Yes! And super size them!” And Satan said, “It is good.” And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMOs.

At the Therapist Business School, our goal is to help service professionals build their practices. The landscape of private practice has changed dramatically over the last few years and new methods of operation are required.

One of the first things you can do to set yourself apart from others is to start a website (which can actually be a blog - these are much easier to set up). You will want a way to capture visitors information so that you can keep in touch with them. To get their information, you need to give something in return. Usually that something is a newsletter filled with valuable tips or perhaps a multi-part e-course that highlights your area of expertise.

Maybe you have decided to go all cutting edge and incorporate these techniques. If so, good for you! The next issue becomes, how to manage all of this? You are in luck; there’s a wonderful service that will manage all of your sign-ups as well as delivering your newsletters and mulit-part e-courses. What is this magical too? It is aweber.

This tool gives you the html code that generates the sign-up box that appears on your site or blog and manages all of the people who sign up. It will keep you from running afoul of anti-spam laws, too, by having subscribers double opt-in. By doing so, you make certain they want your material. Then aweber seamlessly sends out all of the materials you have preloaded. You can also set it up in advance and it will keep on working for you while you are on vacation! All this for less than $20 USD per month! Such a deal!

There is one other thing about aweber that I really like and that is that they offer newsletter templates that you can use. This is great for people like me who want to send out something that looks nice without having to master Microsoft Publisher or some other tool.

Hope you find this helpful!

Dr. Tricia Cardner

The Secret has been getting a lot of press these days. The basic idea is that you put out positive thoughts and images of the things that you want to attract into your life or business. So far, so good, right? You may be thinking that there has to be more to it than this. In my opinion, there is! I saw the authors of “The Secret” on the Oprah show and they did not necessarily emphasize other important aspects to the law of attraction. I think there are a couple of concepts that you need to add to your attraction recipe.

Step 1: Decide exactly what it is you would like to do, be and have. Cut out pictures and symbolic representations of what you would like to achieve.

Step 2: Select one major goal you would like to achieve. For example, maybe you would like to attract a certain number of new clients in a given timeframe. It is much easier to work on one major goal at a time. I have found that trying to work on too many things actually slows me down!

Step 3: Break down the tasks that you will have to do to meet your main objective. To get 10 new clients, for example, I might have to do any number of networking steps. I will have to figure out what those are exactly, and if you are like me, I will write them out.

Step 4: Take massive action towards this list on a very regular basis - weekly at a minimum and daily is even better. You can take small steps on a daily basis. I may have mentioned in a previous post that I worte my dissertation in 15 minutes per day. By working everyday in these small increments, I was able to finish in less tha 6 months total time.

If I do all this, I should be able to make progress towards my goal of getting 10 new clients. This is the law of attraction in action. I think I’m going to call this Tricia’s Law of Action

Dr. Tricia Cardner
htp://www.therapistbusinessschool.com

Don’t forget that we have 2 teleclasses this week. The one one Thursday teaches you how to develop products and services that will culminate in a 6 figure practice if the “recipe” is followed. The second class, on Friday, teaches you the dos and don’ts of Ezines, Pods, and Blogs. This is great information that will definitely increase your income potential and by using these techniques, you will be able to establish yourself as the expert in the eyes of your target market/niche. Pop on over to the teleclasses link to get all of the details!

You’ll be glad you did once you see how easy it is to implement these techniques and build your practice!

Dr. Tricia A. Cardner

We are offering a series of March Madness Teleclasses devoted to helping you build your practice more easily and effectively! Pop on over to the teleclasses link to get all of the details! We have classes on choosing a niche, building your website, making 6 figures with your practice, and ezines, pods, and blogs! You can sign up for classes that have already happened, and we will send you the audio recordings.

Dr. Tricia

I offered a class called “8 Simple Strategies You Can Use to Build Your Practice!” Have a listen and I think you’ll pick up some cool nuggets of practice building information.

This is a recording of an hour long teleclass where we discussed the various methods that can be used to build a private practice.
Cheers!

Dr. Tricia A. Cardner

The second step in building your business is to find your niche. Who is out there who wants what you have to offer? This is one of the most important steps in building a successful practice. In step 1, you figured out what strengths you possess. So now you know what it is you have to offer. In this step, you should choose the target market for your offerings. For every offering, there is some certain group of people who want to experience it! Your job is to find this group of people and to establish yourself as an expert in their eyes. As you can probably surmise from reading this, it is not possible for you to be an expert on all things in your field. It is much better for you to narrowly specialize in an area that is in demand. This is counterintuitive to most practitioners who don’t want to limit their market of potential clients. By narrowing, you will actually find it easier to attract more of your ideal clients!

Here’s to your practice!

Dr. Tricia A. Cardner