helping healthcare organizations grow

Welcome to The Healthcare Marketing Connection! This week we are examining some of the excuses we use for not marketing our practice. Understanding WHY we do things is the first step to making change. If your practice is not making the money you know it can, change is in order. Read this week's feature article to find out how.

I have found a wonderful gem and want to share this with all of you. Some of you may relate to my story too. I have always been intrigued by meditating. I have tried to meditate many, many times over the years - all the way back to high school frankly - and was never able to create the habit. I have a hard time sitting still. My mind is always, always thinking and moving. What are you supposed to be thinking about sitting there for 20 minutes? I could make it a for a week or two, and then would eventually find reasons to stop. Until now.

I have found a meditation CD just for beginners that truly helped me to meditate. My acupuncturist and now friend Kevin Doherty created a meditation CD for beginners several years ago. His voice is calming and what he does for beginners (like me) was walk me through step-by-step things to be doing and thinking during meditation...my posture, my breathing, understanding my strong urge to squirm and why that is and how to work through it. This CD is the one thing that has coached me through the process to bring meditation to my life on a consistent and productive basis. I feel so strongly about this CD that I am selling them myself. These are great individually, and for practitioners selling these in your practice is a great way to make additional income that's NOT based on your time.

You can check it out for yourself - order an individual CD or in a discounted bulk package here.

To your success!

Kelly

Understand why you don't do marketing

Why don't we market our business? What are some of the things holding us back, or causing us to procrastinate putting that handout together, or calling that other practitioner and inviting them to lunch? Do you find yourself busy and saying "I'll do that tomorrow" when it comes to activities you don't enjoy?  

I was thinking about this yesterday while writing a sales page for alternative health practitioners. Why don't we do something that we know is going to help us? All of us want to make more money. All of us want to serve more clients. All of us want to create a successful and prosperous business doing what we love.

So why don't we do the one thing that we know will lead us to achieve these things?

In many ways, marketing for healthcare practitioners is like working out for some people. You know it's good for you. You know you'll feel good after you're done. Ultimately you'll lose weight, look better, feel better, and live longer. So why doesn't everyone work out even a little bit?

Because getting started is hard. It takes discipline. It takes overcoming fears you have. You are putting yourself out there - other people may judge you (or even worse, you may judge yourself and compare yourself to others).

Plus, working out is hard! It's not an easy and fun thing to do in the beginning. Once you get into the swing of things it becomes fun, but starting out doesn't work that way.

Let's take a look at some of the reasons why practitioners don't do marketing. Perhaps we'll uncover some beliefs you have. Awareness is the first step to overcoming unsupportive beliefs.

"Marketing is expensive"
"Marketing is time consuming"
"Marketing doesn't work"
"I tried marketing once and didn't get any new business"
"Marketing is hard"
"I'm afraid"
"I've never done it before"
"I don't know where to start"
"My business will grow naturally through word of mouth referrals"
"I don't have 3 hours a day to devote to that"

These beliefs you have about marketing are nonsupportive. Doing something different requires YOU to make a change.

There are three key elements to change:

1. Awareness
2. Understanding
3. Reconditioning

Let's start with awareness. Are you AWARE of what excuses you're using for not proactively growing your business?

For help overcoming your marketing procrastination, contact us for an initial marketing coaching review at info@amarketingconnection.com

(c) 2008, A Marketing Connection

Want to use this article in your ezine or web site? No problem! Just let me know at info@AMarketingConnection.com. I'll send you a short bio to include at the end of the article.

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This week Kelly recommends the Meditation CD for Beginners By Kevin Doherty, L.Ac. This is the perfect mediation CD and is designed for beginners. Get one for yourself, or think about buying them at a discount in bulk for selling in your practice - a great way to make additional income that's NOT based on your time.

If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

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