What's On Your Plate This Weekend?

Have you seen the latest diet that's running around these days that completely frees you of responsibility for what you eat on the weekends? I wasn't sure whether to be amused or appalled. Personally, I know what I'd do with carte blanche all weekend long-and it wouldn't involve broccoli, carrots or the broiled chicken I've got lined up for dinner tomorrow night!

Rather than saving your treats up and binging on them in a two day binge-fest that's going to completely ruin everything you've worked for all week long, why not treat yourself a little every night? Dark chocolate is actually a respectably healthy snack in small portions, and it does a great job of helping to curb your cravings. Pair it up with some red wine and you've got a Mediterranean style luxury snack.

Can't say "no" to that key lime pie? The key is all in the serving size. A small piece of pie isn't going to kill your diet, but eating the entire thing could have some nasty side effects. So pay attention to what's on your plate this weekend, and don't forget to treat yourself-in moderation.

The Benefits of Detox

I was standing in the store the other day listening to the women behind debate the virtues of a new detox diet being advertised in one popular magazine or another and was horrified to hear one of them say that detoxing was a waste of time. Worse, she implied that a detox diet was just another way for popular magazines to make money by advertising the promise of a "quick fix" to a nation plagued by obesity. Now, I'll grant you, promising to help people lose weight fast is a great way to sell magazines, but if you're assuming that the only reason a detox diet exists is to help someone make money you're missing out on all of the benefits that detox has to offer.

Imagine what would happen if you only gave your home a perfunctory cleaning every week or two. Yes, what you can see would be clean, but what would the back of your cupboards look like? All of us know our houses need a good spring cleaning every now and again, but we neglect to give our bodies the same treatment. That's what a detox diet will do. Detoxing flushes the contaminants that build up over time in the liver, kidneys and other areas of the body that tend to collect waste, giving you the opportunity to start fresh.

Doesn't your body deserve that?

Have You Mastered the Fundamentals of Building a Website?

If you stop and pay me a visit at Catchfire Coaching you'll find that one of the things I stress over and over again for your business is the importance of having a functional website. Not just one designed for your already existing patients (who are probably scratching their heads and going, "They don't have a website yet?") but one that's also going to help you attract new patients who are doing what most of today's information savvy physician searchers do-launching their search for a new doctor over the web.

**Did you know that many patients will dismiss a doctor out of hand if they don't have a website? Incredible, isn't it?**

For your website to catch the eye of your new patients you need it to be search engine friendly, which means you need to concentrate on the following:

1) Keywords
2)Basic website building skills that allow you to add and edit content easily
3) Choosing a domain name that's going to be easy to remember and associate with your business

In today's digital age learning the fundamentals of building a website is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure the continuity of your practice. Don't let another day go by without learning what you need to make your website work for you.

Do You Prefer Facebook or Twitter?

I had an interesting question posed to me this morning that I wanted to share with y'all. What would you say is your favorite social medium? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter? Each has their own advantages, and each plays its own role in personal and business marketing. As I was sitting there thinking about the question I realized that I had different preferences for different purposes. I like Facebook when I need to keep up with what's going on with my family, friends, patients and coworkers; on the other hand, I prefer Twitter to help me keep up with what's going on in my industry.

What would you say is your favorite, and why? And if you had to choose, what would you give up to be able to continue using your favorite social media?

Learning to Navigate the New Web 2.0

While I was prepping my new webinar and gearing up for a seminar in Houston about how medical and chiropractic practices and other small businesses can benefit from social media tools I started thinking. Yes, most of us know that social media is important, but do we really understand how they're paving the way into the new Web 2.0?

More importantly, do we really understand what it is that's separating this generation of patients and consumers from the ones we've been marketing to in the past?

I can give you the answer to that question in one word-the Internet. Today's patient is more informed than ever before. In fact, if you go straight to the bottom line you'll find that today's consumer is almost overinformed. Thanks to the Internet, they think they know more about what's ailing them than you do! That overload of information is what makes it vital for you to establish yourself as an expert from the very beginning.

Our very best patient referrals come from current patients. Why? Because patients trust other patients. That's where social media comes into play. Social media marketing might be written by doctors, but it's going to help your patients to see you as a) an authority in your field and b) a person that other patients respect.

And that respect is the key to building your practice using the Web 2.0.

Destress with Simple Meditation

It's Friday! Time to hop out of my thinking chair, take off my thinking hat and head out into the big, wide, wonderful world for a weekend of rest and relaxation. One of the most important things in my regular routine is taking time out from whatever's going to get in touch with myself, and I've found the easiest way to do that is with this simple meditation exercise.

Light a candle, preferably in a holder, and set it down on a linoleum floor. Sit down in front of it. (You can use a rug or a pillow if you like.) Close your eyes and breathe deeply, clearing your mind. Then open your eyes and focus on the flame. Don't think. If your mind starts to wander, let it go. Don't follow it. This is a time of peace, not worry. By focusing on the flame and its nuances you're depriving your other senses and forcing them to take a time out-a very big must for a busy and overtired brain.

Teamwork Building Exercises

In an incredibly ironic twist of fate, I was talking about teamwork yesterday and stumbled across some great team building sites this morning while browsing around. Take a look, see what they have to offer and consider implementing some of them in your office!

"It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit."

http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html http://www.funteambuilding.com/links.php http://www.geocities.com/dr_adventure/activitypage.html http://www.thiagi.com/games.html

Never Underestimate the Power of Teamwork

Over the years I like to think I've had the chance to learn a few things about the business. Just a few, of course! J One of the things I've learned over the years is that you can never actually do it on your own. I don't care what all those marketing gurus say, without a good team standing behind you you can't do anything. You can't move your products, you can't sell your services. You can't keep track of all your appointments. You can't cash your checks.

In order for your business to move smoothly you need all of the parts to work the way they're supposed to. And that's impossible without teamwork.

Building a Blog for Your Business

I can't remember at the moment whether or not I touched on this in an earlier blog-I tend to get my blogs and my tweets all mixed up! Does anyone else ever have that problem? I wanted to take a second today to talk to you about building up a blog for your business. It can be hard for busy professionals to take the time to blog, especially doctors and chiropractors who don't have five minutes to eat in piece.

Building a blog is important though. Very important. Your blog, filled with your thoughts, is going to be your personal link with your patients. It's going to bridge the gap and, in the end, could be the deciding factor they use when they're choosing who their caregiver is going to be.

Why You Should Limit Your Exposure to Internet Marketing Gurus

As professionals we learn at a very early age that if we don't have the answers you should turn to the experts to find them. When you're dealing with other medical professionals it can be a slight sting to the pride to have to ask for help, but you get over that pretty quickly and enjoy the comradeship that builds in the medical community.

When you're studying the art of Internet marketing your first instinct is usually going to be to turn to the professionals for answers. Spending too much time reading the literature out there published by today's Internet marketing gurus can leave you feeling like a failure when your site doesn't immediately take off. I'm here to tell you a secret. None of these so-called gurus experienced a tremendous amount of success on their first try. They studied, they did their homework, then they reaped the benefits. So be prepared to work hard and run into failure along the way, and if you're finding you've had all the motivational speaking you can handle stop reading.

If you can do what works for you it won't be long before you're seeing tangible results too.