Gosh, it is only a few weeks until our Build Your Full Practice 2-day Workshop in Houston, Texas! Bob, Maria, Cynthia and I are really excited and can’t wait to meet everyone!

Several of you have asked very good questions about the event so I thought I’d answer them in one place.

Here are some of the questions I am asked…

1.) “Your workshop price is $277 and I see it will go up to $350 soon. That is a lot of money for me right now. Is it worth it?”

Boy, I have been there - struggling with finances. So you want to make sure that you will have a good return on your investment. That is good business. Let’s look at the numbers.

On average, people who attend the workshop gain at least 5 new clients in the first 6 months. (Many do much more than that and some do it in the first few weeks.) But let’s be conservative here and say 5 new clients in the next six months.

Let’s say each client stays with you for 10 sessions. (For many therapists, clients stay for a year or two or longer but again we are going to be conservative.)

And say you charge $100 a session. (Not enough? No worries - in the workshop we will show you how to charge much, much more if you wish but we are underestimating for the purposes of this example.)

When we do the math:

5 clients x 10 sessions x $100 = $5,000 added to your bottom line

By attending the workshop and implementing what you learn, you could earn an additional $5,000 - maybe even by the holidays.

What would you do with an extra $5,000? And just think if your clients stayed longer than 10 sessions or you charged more or you put in a bit more effort? Just imagine how much more you could earn. It could transform your practice.

And you could learn this for an initial investment of only $277. (Although we are almost sold out at that rate, it will be going up to $350 soon.)

“Since my second month after being licensed my practice has been full, which for me means betweentwenty-five to thirty-two clients a week. My income is far more than I imagined; I love working with my client base; and I am not on any insurance panels. I also want to share with you that I am not that organized. I have consistently, but rather haphazardly, applied the principles that Casey teaches. I can’t imagine where I would be had I been able to apply all that she teaches in a logical, consistent way! I sat where you are sitting a little over a year ago, and I know, without a doubt, Iwould not be enjoying the level of success that I am had it not been for my work with Casey.”

2) “Can you guarantee I will make that?”

You will learn the skills and the scripts to make that and much more. But no, I cannot guarantee you will because it takes your implementing what you learn at the workshop in order for you to reap the results. But if you are even reasonably motivated, you can increase your private practice income substantially. Further, we do have a guarantee for the workshop - if by noon on the first day, you don’t believe it is worth your investment, we will cheerfully refund you the price of the workshop.

3) “Marketing myself makes me feel so uncomfortable because I am strong introvert. Can you really help it be easier for me?”

Yes, we will show you the exact way that I worked through my shyness and was able to build a six-figure practice. And it isn’t all about meeting people you don’t know at stuffy meetings or giving speeches. We will show you 17 different ways to market your practice - and we will show you what will work best for your individual personality type. By the way, I wanted to remind you of something. You are not marketing yourself! You are marketing the fact that you help some people reduce their pain.

By letting people know what pain you help to reduce, you are giving people hope…hope that they can be out of pain. You empower them to take charge of their own emotions and relationships. In this workshop, we will show you how toidentify your ideal client and help you learn to speak more easily about what you do for a living.

4) “I have tried marketing seminars before. How is yours different?”

Guess what? There is great news for introverts. You do not have to give presentations or talk to people you don’t know to build your practice. You don’t even have to go to unstructured networking events if you don’t want to!

In this article, I discuss 5 of 11 proven ideas that you can use to effectively build your practice.

What is an Introverted Marketing Type?

Introverts are deep thinkers and people of great depth. They enjoy one-on-conversations and this makes the helping profession a perfect one for them.

They love quiet reflection and enjoying time with their family. Introverts have huge hearts and care deeply about people. They will go the extra mile to help someone in pain.

Much has been written about Introverts. My two favorite sayings about introverts are:

1) “Still waters run deep” and

2) “Introverts aren’t party poopers - they are pooped by the party!”

When they think of marketing their practice, Introverts often experience significant anxiety. They worry about “selling” themselves. They imagine having to make inane conversation with people they don’t know at networking meetings.

However, it is the Introvert’s desire to get the spotlight off themselves that can actually be the very best and most effective marketing technique. Introverts can actually be the best private practice marketers.

Most people love to talk about themselves and this gives Introverts a distinct advantage. Introverts can easily invite people to talk about themselves in a way that makes potential referral sources want to refer to them!

The Introvert’s Biggest Marketing Challenge.

The Introvert is the Marketing Personality Type most prone to “binge” marketing. Once an Introvert gets into the swing of marketing (in ways that use their gifts), they tend to enjoy it and feel pretty comfortable with it. But as the practice fills, Introverts will often slow down and even stop marketing. It is like going to the gym, once you stop - it is harder to get back there again.

How To Market Your Practice As An Introvert:

1) Recognize that being an introvert gives you a distinct advantage in your marketing efforts. People easily talk about themselves around you.

2) Develop a list of questions that you can ask people as you meet them - potential referral sources and prospects. As you have these questions in your mind, it will be easier to talk to people.

3) Never try to sell yourself. Always come from your very natural “How can I serve you?” place.

***This is a HUGE key for introverts and one I will be going into depth about at the upcoming workshop. If marketing makes your stomach knot up, this one little secret can turn you into a business magnet - with little or no effort.

4) Consider online therapist locator services - such as Find-A-Therapist.com. Write a listing that is directed to your ideal client and will have your ideal client rushing to the phone to call you.

5.) Create an accountability system for your marketing efforts - a set of goals you review regularly or a coach or colleague to keep you moving toward the practice you really want.

It may take a little longer for an Introvert to become known in his or her community but they can still build a fantastic practice!

Until we meet again…

Love and blessings to you,

Casey

I am so excited to see what 2007 brings. We have so many exciting programs in the works to help you build your practice! We will be partnering with some extraordinary people this year in ways that will teach us a lot more about marketing, attracting clients, and reclaiming our private practice dream.

Did you submit a practice-building question at http://www.AskCaseyTruffo.com ?

If so, I really want to thank you.
It will help me to know better how to serve you.

One question that several submitted was:

How do I get more people to my website?

This is a great question! I love it that more and more therapists are considering using technology to attract more clients. I believe the internet will be the number one way clinicians will build their practices in the coming decade. In fact, our theme at BeAWealthyTherapist.com for 2007 is: “How You Can Use Technology to Attract More Clients even for Technophobes!”

Back to the question .. There are really two questions here. One is how to get clients to the website. But, I believe, an even more important question is “How do I turn website visitors into clients?”

To get prospective clients to your website, you can do it for fr.ee by putting your web address on everything and offering an “ethical bribe” in terms of a free audio or report - to invite them to visit. For example “To learn the 5 simple steps to get your child to listen to you, visit (your website here.)”

You can put that simple one-liner on the back of your business card, your stationery and your email signature. If you write articles, put that information in the “resource box” at the end of your article.

You can also do paid advertising, for example, with Google Ad words. With this feature, you pay Google a small amount each time your website advertisement is clicked on. If you decide to use this type of pay-per-click advertising, make sure you learn how it works first. Be sure you visit the Google Ad words Learning Center and take the tutorials along with the quizzes. Believe me, this will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

Now to the question: “How do I turn website visitors into clients?”

Most people expect (or hope) that website visitors will read about their experience and credentials on the website and will want to make an appointment.

But let’s get back to the basics of marketing. People need to get a sense of you first. They need to decide if they can trust you and to see if you have the solution to their problem.

How do you do that? I alluded to it before. It involves sharing your wisdom over time with your prospects.

First, you want to capture their information in a way that is non-threatening. You do this by offering a free report or free audio in return.

My coach calls this a “pink spoon.” At a Baskin and Robbins ice cream store, you can get a taste of ice cream in a tiny pink spoon in order to determine if you like it. After that taste, you can decide if you want more.

By offering a “pink spoon” free report or free audio recording, people can get to know you better. You can then keep in touch with them over time offering more “pink spoon” wisdom treats. I do this with this newsletter.

Make sure that any content you send to your list contains value to them. They will get to know you better and your name will be the one they think of when they are ready to hire a therapist!

Happy practice building!

1) Looking for a way to stay motivated with your marketing efforts? Judy Gifford, from Find-A-Therapist.com and I have teamed up this year to offer a new program: Practice Building Group Coaching Modules to help you learn new skills and stay on track with your practice building goals.

These Group Coaching Modules will be offered monthly - each month on a different topic. You can sign up for the series or pick and choose the ones you like. Each monthly group module will consist of one lecture call and two coaching calls where I help the group to implement the techniques learned. Plus Coach Cynthia McKenna will be offering 3 hours of laser coaching each month just for the Coaching Group participants. (Laser coaching is where participants can call in with individual questions on a first-come-first-serve basis.)

Don’t be left out! You can’t afford to miss this!

For more information, please visit:
http://www.BeaWealthyTherapist.com/coachinggroup.html

Here are the monthly group topics:

• February: Goal Setting Boot Camp.
• March: Money 101 for Therapists.
• April: Marketing “Quick Start” Guide.
• May: How to Expand Your Client Base with Target Marketing.
• June: How to use Technology to Market Your Practice - Part I - How to Use Find-A-Therapist to attract clients.
• July: How To Use Technology to Market Your Practice - Part 2 Ð Websites and Blogs.
• September: How To Use Technology to Market Your Practice - Part 3 - Turning Web Prospects into Clients.
• October: Group Q&A and Hot Seat Coaching

If you have been procrastinating on your marketing or need to brush up, consider joining us at http://www.BeaWealthyTherapist.com/coachinggroup.html

2) No-Charge Teleseminar: How To Increase Your Income by Accepting Credit-Cards

I am so excited to offer this free teleclass. I have found a great resource for offering credit cards that is perfect for most therapists! No swipe machine - no long term contracts - no more creating billing statements for clients at the end of the month. How cool is that?

I will share this resource and show you how you can use credit cards in your practice in this teleclass. (A teleclass is a class taught over the phone in a conference call setting.)

This one-hour teleclass will be held on: Thursday, January 18, 2007

4 PM Pacific Time
5 PM Mountain Time
6 PM Central Time
7 PM Eastern Time

To register, please visit:
http://www.beawealthytherapist.com/creditcardsclass.html

Again, if you asked a question at: http://www.AskCaseyTruffo.com - thank you. While I can’t answer each one individually I will do my best in upcoming articles and classes.

And I hope you will be joining us on the live call (or via the recording where I answer the 7 most important questions I receive. If you’d like to register for this call for $29.95 (that is $50 off the regular price), please visit: http://www.AskCaseyTruffo.com/call.html

I hope 2007 brings you many blessings and great joy.

All good wishes,