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It is Time to Let Go of Marketing Paralysis

Last week, I was coaching a fantastic therapist who practices in San Francisco. Her clients adore her. She serves on the boards of two non-profit organizations and is very active in her church. But last week she was very frustrated with her marketing efforts. “Casey, my website is almost done but I think I want to rewrite it. And I don’t want to put my listing on the online therapist locators until my website is done. I know you suggested I look into networking groups but I want to wait until I have a better tag line.”

I was quiet for a moment but she filled the silence. (As I said she is an excellent therapist.)

“Okay, the truth is I feel a bit paralyzed. I think I am simply procrastinating - can you help me see why?”

I told Marlene and I will tell you. If I waited until everything was perfect to market my practice, I’d still be $45,000 in debt.

If you find that you are in a state of marketing paralysis, here is what I always do:

Set yourself a goal and then schedule backwards. As a former project manager, I know the value of setting a date and then figuring out what you need to do to meet your goal on that date. For example, decide that your website will be completed 4 weeks from today and then identify the steps necessary to make that happen. If you want to give a community presentation, give it a title and schedule it in 4 weeks from now. Believe me, if you set a date you will get yourself in gear and make it happen.

I told Marlene and I will tell you. You are good enough right now. Perfectly good enough. Get it through your head that nothing is ever going to be perfect. As I have said many times, please focus on completion not perfection.

You’ll be happier - and you will have more clients!

Happy practice building!


Casey Truffo, MFT is an award-winning speaker and coach to therapists on five continents. She is the author of Be A Wealthy Therapist: Finally, You Can Make a Living While Making a Difference. Founder of BeAWealthyTherapist.com, her vision is to teach therapists how to ethically and honestly earn a good living.

If you have any questions, please contact us at (949) 309.2590 or visit our website at http://www.beawealthytherapist.com

This article may be reprinted as long as full attribution is given.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 6:48 am and is filed under , Tips, Ideas, Marketing, Sales, Blog Carnival. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.

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