Getting Clients Newsletter

April 2005

Welcome to GETTING CLIENTS!

Each month we bring you the best information and resources we can find to help you get clients and build your ideal practice.

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Seminar of the Month

CONTENTS

• Announcements
  1. April 6th Free Seminar- How to Write an Article That Will Get Published
  2. May 4th Free Seminar- How to Supercharge Your Practice with Public Speaking
  3. Our next 90-Day Practice Building Intensive starts April 7th
  4. Our next Get Clients Full Practice Training starts May 4th
• Feature Article: If You Can Write a 10 Item Grocery List, You Can Turn Your Words into Prospects, Publicity and Profits
• Cool Resource of the Month
• Invitations

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. April 6th Free Tele-Seminar-

How to Write an Article That Will Get Published: Turning your Words into Prospects, Publicity, and Profits

with Jeff Herring, MS, MFT, therapist, coach, entreprenuer, nationally syndicated columnist, and President of BYIP.com

Getting articles published is the fastest and best way to establish your credibility as an expert and attract prospects for your practice.

This seminar will cover:

• How you can write a publishable article, even if you don't like to write
• How to make writing an article as easy as writing a grocery list
• How to captivate your reader by writing like you talk
• Where to find ideas for articles
• How to blow away writer's block forever
• Two sure-fire templates for writing winning articles
• How to leverage just one article into a steady stream of referals, subscribers, and customers
• How to turn words into traffic, prospects, publicity and profits

This seminar will show you how to write an article that WILL get published, even if you don't like to write!

Jeff Herring, MS, LMFT is a counsleor, relationship coach, speaker, columnist and author. A syndicated relationship columnist since 1994, Jeff has written over 600 articles that appear in newspapers all over the world and all over the internet (google his name to check out a few!)

Please join us!

For more information about this and future Practice-Building Seminars

To subscribe to this newsletter and access our seminars

2. May 4th Free Tele-Seminar-

How to Supercharge Your Practice with Public Speaking

with special guest Tom Antion, professional speaker, author, and Internet marketing expert.

Public speaking is one of the fastest and best ways to establish your credibility as an expert and attract prospects for your practice.

This seminar will cover:

• How to create and market fantastic presentations
• How to get paid to speak on your expertise
• Simple tips and tricks that make you look like a pro
• How to double or triple the number of prospects and leads any time you speak
• How to make more than your speaking fee in "back of the room" sales

A special invitation from Jeff Herring, President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com:

Tom Antion is my mentor in both speaking and internet marketing. His willingness and passion for sharing his expertise has been a significant influence in what I have been able to accomplish with my business and practice. His stuff works! You do not want to miss this!

3. 90-Day Practice Building Intensive starts April 7th

• Ready to build your ideal practice?
• Want to work less and make more?
• Would you like to learn how you can actually have fun building and marketing your business?

• E-book version of How To Build Your Ideal Practice In 90 Days
• Weekly assignments with all the step-by-step instructions needed to complete them
• Weekly consultation teleclass, Thursdays 9am pacific/Noon eastern, recorded for your listening convenience (web audio recordings also available)
• E-mail discussion list for your questions, ideas, feedback, and support
• Access to our exclusive Practice Development Resource Bank, Knowledge Bank, and Audio Catalogue for the best "how to" information and free/low cost practice-building resources

For more information

4. How to Get Clients Full Practice Training starts May 4th

If you do not yet have a full practice, this program is for you!

You must survive before you can thrive. To survive in private practice you must master the skills and strategies for getting clients.

This 8-week program includes:

• Weekly teleclasses, Wednesdays 3pm pacific/6pm eastern
• Step-by-step e-mailed assignments
• E-mail discussion list for support and feedback
• Supplemental audio recordings for missed classes, more info
• E-version of the “How to Get Clients Toolkit.”

“I really like the way the content is organized. It seems obvious, simple and easy while being rich and deep.”

“Thorough delivery and materials. It's like having a consultant to guide you through to a successful practice. I wish I had this sooner!”

“This program took the mystery out of getting clients”

“I have been a therapist in private practice for 30 years. I regret that I didn't know this earlier.”

“It's been one of the greatest boosts my practice has ever had. The tools are practical and effective, plain and simple. I recommend this training without hesitation."

“A sure fire, step-by-step marketing plan that takes the dread out of doing your own marketing.”

“This program is dynamite!”

Facilitated by David Steele and Jeff Herring

Please join us!

Wednesdays, May 4th– June 22nd
3:00pm pacific / 6:00pm eastern

For more information visit our website

Table of Contents

FEATURE ARTICLE

If You Can Write a 10 Item Grocery List, You Can Turn Your Words into Prospects, Publicity and Profits

by Jeff Herring, MS, LMFT, President of BYIP.com


One of the many blessings of being a self-employed professional is that I get to do many different things every day. Here is a sampling:

• Full-time marriage and family therapy practice, free from managed care for 10 years
• Relationship coach for singles and couples
• President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com and practice-builidng coach
• Professional speaker
• Nationally syndicated relationship columnist
• Author of several books, booklets, e-programs and e-books
• Internet entreprenuer with 8 websites, and have almost that many in development

Now please understand, I'm not trying to impress you. I share this with you to highlight this one fact-

There is one theme that runs through every one of these business activities that has greatly contributed to my success......

That one thing is............. Writing!

And this from a guy who never finished his dissertation because I was convinced that I could not write. (That's right, I've got the Ph (piled higher) but not the D (deeper) ;)

In 1994, I was your basic marriage and family therapist, struggling to keep clients on the books and wondering how I was going to respond to the onslaught of managed care that had finally reached my area of the country.

At that point, the local newspaper had been running a weekly mental health column in the health section for a few years. There had been three writers up to this point, with the contract being somewhere between 6 months and a year. Each of these columnists had written dry academic stuff like "What is manic-depression?" or "What is obssessive compulsive disorder?" I had written two pieces for the local psychiatric center; one on parenting adolescents and one on stress. So when the time came around to open up the Mental Health Columnist position again, I applied. And got turned down. Even worse, someone else in my practice got it. Further evidence in my mind that I really could not write.

A year later, the position was open again. Being a stubborn and persistent sort, I applied again and got it! So now I was faced with having to come up with a column each and every week. Well, I thought, at least it's only for six months.

So I just began writing about the things I saw around me in my practice and my world. Somewhere in that first 6 months, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Media Services picked it up and began to syndicate it nationally and internationally.

The first six months passed, and they wanted me to continue to write it. The second six months, (one year) passed, and they still wanted me to write it. That was ten years ago, and I've long ago lost track of how many places my column appears.

The reason for my telling you this story is to communicate as strongly as I can: You Can Do This! In fact, if you can write a 10 item grocery list, you can write an article.


Writing results in...........

1) Prospects - Having your writng appear in any publicly offered medium (newspapers, magazines, web sites-even your own!), books, e-books, e-programs makes you the expert in the eyes of the public. Being perceived as an expert brings you prospects.

2) Publicity - I live and practice in Tallahassee, Florida, which is in Leon County. The last time I counted, thanks to three universities and many people wanting to live here, there are approximately 76 Clinincal Members of The American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy. The joke in Tallahassee is that you are either a therapist or in therapy, or both. For comparison, in Orange County, Florida (Orlando, Disney, etc.) there are only 87 Clinical Members of AAMFT. The point is that the competition for clients in Tallahassee is tight. So why have I been able to run a full practice completely managed-care and insurance-free for the last 10 years? The main reason is that I have written a weekly relationship column for the last ten years and I am "the guy in the paper."

3) Profits - Because writing makes you the expert, you are then able to charge what you believe you are worth, no one blinks, and you get it. And that is just the source of income that comes from sitting in my chair with clients every day. Because an article can become an e-program, a feature in your own and other newsletters, a book, an e-book, a presentation, etc. writing results in passive income that you can earn while sleeping or having fun.

So now it is time to back up that claim I made a few paragraphs ago - remember? If you can write a 10 item grocery list, you can write an article.

The Jeff Herring 5 and 5 Approach to Writing an Article

Get Ready: What is your area of expertise? What is your niche? What excites you?

Whatever your answer to the question above, here is the next question:

First Five: Thinking of your ideal client in your niche, what are five of the signs that they need your kind of service?

Write down those five signs or symptoms.

Second Five: Now, what are five solutions or things you would recommend that this person do?

Write down those five solutions or things to do.

All that is left to do is to add a few lines to each of the five symptoms and to each of the five solutions. Just think of it as putting some meat on the skeleton you just sketched out

You now have what could be your very first article!

The five and five approach is just one of the templates I use for creating your own stream of articles or columns.

© 2005 / All rights reserved

I want to personally invite you to join me for my F`REE April 7th tele-seminar-

How to Write an Article That Will Get Published: Turning your Words into Prospects, Publicity, and Profits

Jeff Herring is based in Tallahassee, Florida. He brings a wealth of experience and a great sense of humor to our programs. For more information about Jeff, visit www.JeffHerring.com

For more information about this and future Practice-Building Seminars

To subscribe to this newsletter and access our seminars

Table of Contents

COOL RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

If you missed it, you can now get the entire event on 15 CDs with a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. Check it out!

INVITATIONS

• We invite you to share this newsletter with a colleague.
  There is a tremendous need for our services, and we need to work together. Practice development is always in need and we want to be the leaders in our field.
• Please contact us with ideas and resources you have found useful so we can pass them on!
• We invite you to get the support you need to be successful in your practice.
  We are available for information, training, ideas, mentor coaching, etc.
• We invite you to become an affiliate of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com and begin to earn extra income just by sharing our programs and products with your friends and colleagues. For more info visit our website.
• If you are a private practice professional who received this from a colleague, we invite you to visit our web site and contact us for information on joining us.

How do you like our newsletter? Your feedback is welcome!

Until next time…

David Steele, MA, LMFT
Founder and CEO of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com

The purpose of this newsletter is to connect, support each other, inform, and build a strong community of helping professionals who want to have thriving businesses and fulfilling lives. Your submissions and feedback are welcome!

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Our Mission: To provide the tools, information and support to help private practice professionals have their ideal practices in the most effective and efficient ways possible.

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