What do KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Big-O Tires and Godiva chocolates have in common?All of them market a specialty product. They have built a recognizable brand name. For example, if you were looking for fried chicken, you probably would go to KFC before trying to get it at your local Chinese take-out place.

Yet all of these companies offer other products. At Big-O Tires, you can get an oil change. Godiva offers biscuits and coffee beside their magnificent chocolates. Along with chicken, you can get corn, beans and mashed potatoes at KFC.

These companies understand that becoming known for a specialty will increase income.

In this issue, I have excerpted a short section from our Build Your Therapy Practice Self Study Course where we address specializing – what it is and what it is not. If you like the article and want more, consider ordering the full program: The 130-page manual, 12 audio CDs and the free consultation to personalize the program for you.

We have added an installment payment plan for Self Study Course. You can get the workbook, CDs and the consultation all for four monthly payments of $97. You can get more information at: http://www.attractmoreclientsnow.com

This weekend my husband Bob and I will be in Austin, Texas at the AAMFT conference. We are looking forward to spending 4 days meeting therapists from around the country, sightseeing and eating a lot BBQ and Mexican food. If you are at the conference, stop by and say “hi.” I will be speaking Sunday morning.

Here is the article. Hope you enjoy it!

STRATEGY 4: PLEASE SPECIALIZE. (GO DEEP WITHIN THE MAGIC OF A NICHE.)

One time I was at a networking meeting for therapists. During the introductions, one the therapists stood up and said “I have to admit I kind of have a specialty now. But I am really embarrassed to admit that. Somehow the specialty has found me. And that is doing sex therapy.”

He looked down sheepishly as he said it. Several ladies stood around him and shook their heads as if to say “Oh, poor you. I am sorry you have to be pigeon-holed as a specialist.”

Somehow being a generalist got a better reputation.

I was thinking, “I know so many women therapists who would like to know a good male sex therapist to refer to. I know one in my hometown, but this was a man who practiced in a different city and I would love to know more male sex therapists that I could refer to.”

It made me sad to see him apologizing for his desire, skill and ability to help people with a certain type of pain. I believe he easily could have filled his practice by proudly talking about how he loved doing sex therapy. He could have changed any identifying information and told of a wonderful success story. I imagine many therapists in that room had couples they could have referred to him. But no one wanted to because he seemed unhappy about his specialty.

Pick a specialty for marketing purposes.
I want to go on the record here as saying that I am encouraging you to pick a specialty for marketing purposes. This means picking a population you enjoy or a problem you like helping to resolve. And then telling your community about it.

It absolutely does not mean excluding or limiting your practice. You can see whomever you wish. My belief is that when you pick a specialty to market, your practice fills better, you feel better and you have more consistent referrals over time.

What Specializing IS.
Specializing is about choosing a population of people you enjoy and crafting your marketing to appeal to them so that you can enjoy more of them in your caseload.

Specializing is about identifying a particular pain that you’d like to help people reduce and letting our community know that you do.

What specializing IS NOT.
Specializing is not excluding clients because you only see certain types of people or problems. With every intake call, you decide if you want to see that person. You get to choose.

Specializing is not about only seeing one type of person or problem.

Marketing a specialty also creates a “halo effect.” People see you as an expert in one thing and assume that will generalize to other areas. Enjoy the halo effect!

Happy practice building!

My friend Chellie sent this to me - it is from today’s LA Times:

A Coach May Improve Your Game

Experts can help entrepreneurs look at the big picture, set goals and create strategies.
October 11, 2006

Cindy Schreier visited a playground with her son last year and ran into a coach who convinced the entrepreneur that she could improve her performance.

Coach Michelle Payne wasn’t talking about fine-tuning Schreier’s backhand. Payne is a business coach, and she meant to help the owner of Prima Environmental, a Sacramento testing lab, win at the high-stakes game of small business.

It was February 2005 and Schreier’s growing company had so much work testing contaminated soils for environmental consultants that she was having trouble keeping track of it all, even with the addition of her first full-time employee, a chemist. Her office overflowed with paper. She was worried about money and unsure how well the company was faring.

“The business was running me; I wasn’t running it,” Schreier said.

She had never heard of a business coach until she met Payne by chance at the park where their children played. She just knew she needed help.

Schreier was so impressed with Payne’s comments during the coach’s first visit to the firm that she hired her on the spot. In the following months, Schreier made changes that improved the bottom line at the company she started in 1998 and expanded in 2003.

She created checklists and a log to track important communications with her chemist. She filed paperwork and learned how simple steps, such as keeping a pad near her phone for taking notes during client calls, could be the foundation for an organized workflow. And she hired an administrative assistant.

At the end of the year, the company’s annual revenue was up 60% at $320,000.

“Working with a coach gives you the opportunity to discuss issues and brainstorm, and that can open up new doors,” said Payne, executive vice president at Beyond Point B and a board member of the International Coach Federation.

Business coaches have become popular, particularly among small-business owners who are often overwhelmed trying to juggle multiple roles. Unlike management consultants, who usually have specific types of business expertise and are trained to offer solutions, business coaches tend to help their clients look at the big picture — a view that often includes their personal and professional lives — and draw conclusions.

“It’s not about us giving the answers. It’s about us pulling the answers out of the client,” said Diane Brennan, a business and life coach in Tucson and president-elect of the coach group.

Coaches help clients set goals and establish the steps they must take to achieve them. They also hold their clients accountable for achieving the results they want, usually through weekly discussions in person or over the phone.

The technique works well for individuals who are motivated to make changes and are willing to do the necessary work.

The demand for coaches has helped more than double membership in the International Coach Federation in the last five years. The Lexington, Ky.-based group (www.coachfederation.org), which runs a certification program, said the number of its business and life coach members would hit 10,700 this year, compared with 4,600 in 2001.

Coaching can be an effective way for a busy small-business owner to step back and determine whether the company is being run in line with the owner’s values and priorities. It also can help owners rethink those priorities.

Residential interior designer Allison Hanes, principal of Allison Hanes Design in Los Angeles, went to her L.A. coach, Keith Miller, to make changes in her personal life. Typical of most small-business owners, she soon found that her personal issues were entwined with her business challenges.

“There are things I realize that I want to change. I want to get out of the box, to push myself creatively and to make more unexpected choices,” said Hanes, who started her business in 1992.

“Keith has been instrumental in helping me focus on my professional goals and create some strategies on how to realize them,” she added.

With his encouragement, Hanes is beginning a long-neglected project to create a website for her business and has tried to increase her networking, which she finds difficult. She is considering creating a newsletter for her clients and has committed to getting more of her projects professionally photographed for use on her website and in promotional material.

Coaches come from a variety of professional backgrounds. Some are former psychotherapists, management consultants, teachers or executives. Miller once owned a salon.
There is no industry license program, which is why experts recommend working with a coach that has been certified by the coach federation.

To enhance the credibility of the emerging profession, the group offers three levels of certification to members who follow its professional conduct standards and ethical guidelines and meet its minimum requirements.

The levels are based on the amount of coaching experience and the number of hours of federation-approved training a coach has completed. A master certified coach, the highest rank, has a minimum of 2,500 hours of direct coaching experience and 200 hours of training.

Once you’ve selected a coach, don’t hire the person until you understand the terms of the contract and the refund policy, said Bruce Schneider, a coach and president of IPEC Coaching of Manasquan, N.J., an ICF-accredited coach-training company.

Coaches often work in weekly sessions, speaking with their clients over the telephone or in person at the client’s company. Schreier, though, met with Payne once a month for two hours at a time over a four-month period.

Some coaches charge $1,500 a month with a three-month commitment required. Others, such as Miller, charge by the hour. His $150 hourly fee is common, although some coaches charge $300 or more per hour.

Results of a coaching relationship might be measured in costs saved by an owner who can retain successful employees, bring in new business revenue or better organize processes.

“If you are not getting a return on investment that is six to 10 times what you pay your coach,” Schneider said, “then you have the wrong coach.”

cyndia.zwahlen@latimes.com

How many times have you heard these quotes?

“Be careful what you wish for”

“Where your attention goes, your energy flows.”

“If you think you are going to lose, you will lose.”

Though they may not be referencing it, these people were talking about the universal Law of Attraction.

Simply put, the Law of Attraction is: what you think about - you create more of.

You can view this in spiritual terms, (”Ask and you shall receive”) or as a universal law of quantum physics. The principle is the same: Focus on something and you often get it - whether you want it or not.

I was thinking about a counseling client of mine. Many would say her life is great. She has a good job. She is in a doctoral program. She has the cutest puppy that is more like her child than her pet. But she never seems to get what she wants in life. School is too much work. She feels her bosses treat her unfairly. Week after week she shares her feelings of being unhappy and undervalued.

This reminded me of the times in my life where I felt like the victim. Especially when I didn’t have enough clients to pay the rent. Every prospect who called was like “grocery money” and I really felt desperate.

The more desperate I felt, the less prospects called and the less money I had. My whole focus was on what I didn’t have and then guess what? I ended up with more of it - poverty.

I think learning to focus on what you want and hope to have is a process for most of us.

Here are the steps:

1) Know where you are starting. In business, know your numbers. Know how many clients you have. Know how much money is coming in each month. Know your expenses.

2 ) Know what you don’t want. Maybe you don’t want to work with eating disorders. Or children. There may be certain times of the day that you don’t want to work. Be clear on what you really do not want in your life and your practice.

3) Be clear on what you do want. Imagine it. See it. Talk about it.

4) Clear out the resistance. Many people find that they can do the three steps mentioned above, but find that old beliefs, and naysayers in their lives keep them from really moving ahead. Do your own inner work to “clear the decks’ for your success.

I know that as I moved away from poverty consciousness and began to slowly implement these steps my practice started growing. This is one of the main reasons I love doing the work I do. As I help therapists to clear out the resistance and help them focus on what they want, magic seems to happen. Really!

Just take a peek inside my inbox:

“I have literally quadrupled my full-fee private pay clients this summer (during the traditional “slow” months!). I made more money in August, even with a 10-day vacation, than I did in any given month last spring. All the best to you, Casey, you ROCK!”
Sue Duroncelet, MFT

“Casey, since I started working with you, I have just about doubled my cash-paying client base. I am on my way to a totally non-managed care private practice!” Gary Robertson, MFT

A great friend and therapist, Donna, recommended a book to my last boot camp group which most of us read and enjoyed. It has been used by individuals, groups and churches to help people to get what they want. The book is called “Ask and it is Given” by Ester and Jerry Hicks.

Also if you are an Exclusive Member in the Attract More Clients Exclusive Member Program, we will be having a teleclass on the Law of Attraction on:

Monday, October 30, 2006

6 pm Pacific
7 pm Mountain
8 pm Central
9 pm Eastern

Make sure you join us! Visit the Exclusive Members site here for call-in details.

If you are not an Exclusive Member, check it out here at http://www.BuildYourTherapyPractice.com. As a member you can participate in this call, plus listen to over 25 hours of recorded classes all for less than $1/day.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Law of Attraction. Where do you notice it in your life? Where have you seen successes when you began to focus more on what you do want and less on what you don’t? Share your successes and comments at http://buildyourtherapypractice.com/casey/archives/28#comments

Have a great week and I hope you get everything you want!

Love and blessings,