Oops

Well, I meant to post for last month but I was in Vancouver over the weekend for Halloween. My resolution is coming along fine. I've been doing 3 dance classes a week as well as other random stuff like stretching at home, walks around town, or going out dancing. My dance classes are awesome. My favourite is still the ballet class, which sadly is only once a week, tho I do love the modern classes. It's been 2 months now, and I'm learning a lot, it's really fun and addictive. Even the other night, I went to a friends birthday party, which was a "30 year old Rockstar Party" they had it at a dance school and set up rockband in one room and DDR in another room. Well, there was barre and mirrors and whatnot, and my friend Kelsey who dances a lot was there.. and alot of the girls at the party do Bellydancing. So, me and Kelsey and this other girl Michelle were making use of the Barre, practicing all these different dance things, it was a blast. Plus Michelle is a trained dance teacher so she was helping me with my pirouettes and giving me some core strengthening exercises. Not often you get to practice pirouettes at a party, so it was a definite highlight, considering I'm obsessed with dance right now.
Even the other night in Vancouver, Paul and I were over at Al and Jamie's place, and the boys were watching movies .. I wasn't particularily interested, so I was practicing my ballet exercises. Same thing at home. I tend to have kinda tight hamstrings and hip flexors, so I've been inspired to stretch more at home to improve my ballet.

So.. other than that, work is going well. I'm finally at the point where I'm not stressing over money anymore. This is a nice place to be. I went shopping for frivolous stuff like a purse over the weekend, and was completely cool with it.. no worry about if I could afford it or not. Things are great at the clinic, I made a decision that I don't really want to market for FRA patients anymore, cuz I wasn't enjoying those treatments as much as my regular ones. And since then, I've been getting tons of regular patients in again. It's fantastic. I love all my new patients, and there's been a lot. last week alone I had 4 new patients. Over the summer, I remember being stoked that I had 8 new patients in a whole month. So 4 in a week is huge. and I had almost that many the week before too.

As far as marketing goes, we just started a new marketing campaign.. it's this "door knob advertising" thing. It's basically a bunch of coupons on a strip that gets hung on every door in a specific area around the clinic, has a distribution of about 9000 homes I believe. Anyways, we do it for 3 months in a row and the cost is only about 400 bucks to each of us. The ad looks quite nice, they designed it for us with our basic ideas and content. So they just delivered the first run, I'm looking forward to seeing if it pans out. It's actually really interesting to see where I get the majority of my business from, and overwhelmingly so far, it's been the yellowpages. I'm glad I paid the extra cash to get a bigger ad in both yellowpages. It costs me about 80 bucks a month, but it's well worth it. I may consider going for something even larger next year.

Ballet

Been a month of dance classes so far and I'm loving it. Modern 2 nights a week and Ballet on saturday mornings. I have easily gotten all my workouts in, and continue to do my marketing plan and tracking for work.

the end

So I think I can Dance?

Alo
Here I am, writing my last "summer" blog. Truth is, summer is not the ideal time for me to workout. There's way too much going on. So therefore, I have not done my "workouts" but have been doing other stuff like tubing down the Cowichan river, and playing Poi or frisbee at the park. I don't really know if that stuff counts.. so, whatever, maybe I lose 2 points, I don't really care too much if I do or not cuz I'm not going to pretend I did workouts.
So I'm really excited about September. I start Dance classes in a couple weeks from now. I have decided to take 2 Modern classes per week, and 1 Ballet class. I'm super stoked about this, I've pretty well been talking about it every day. Infact, I specifically spend 300 bucks on more sheets for my clinic so I wouldn't have to worry about doing laundry on the nights when I have my dance classes.
Anyways, the place I'm going is the only studio in town that offers classes for adults only. They specialize in modern (contemporary) classes as well, which is perfect, as that was my whole reason for wanting to start these classes. I'll be taking the level 1 class, since I'm a noob. I can't wait to start learning new stuff!!
You know, that's one of the reasons why I'm taking classes too.. I find running on the eliptical machine or whatever just about the most boring activity ever.. so to do that 3 or 4 times a week.. ug.. I'd much rather be doing something that's not only exercise, but also fun, and something where I'm learning a new skill or ability. The great thing about this type of dance is that I've never done anything like it before either, so it's completely new!

So, other than exercise, I've been working on my business stuff like a madwoman. I have this massive excel spreadsheet that Bryce helped me out with. I've been entering all my data in there, which I can then use to do different marketing stuff with. Like seeing what worked and what didn't for marketing already. I've been enjoying that a great deal. Who would have thought I'd get so excited over equations? (oh wait, this is me we're talking about, of course I'd get excited over equations.. lol)

July

Kristy says:
that reminds me, I have to write that blog..
Kristy says:
ug
Kristy says:
as if my day isn't busy enough!
Bryce says:
Yeah, you haven't had 30 other days to write it.
Bryce says:
slacker
Kristy says:
speaking of which, tomorrows paycheck will be my 2nd highest paycheck ever
Bryce says:
Not like you have to write much.
Kristy says:
hehe
Bryce says:
"did my revised workouts (walks + workouts), and my marketing plan made a huge leap with a new database that bryce help me design".
Bryce says:
done
Bryce says:
Do i get your blog points now?
Kristy says:
no, I get them! thanks for writing it for me tho
Kristy says:
lol
Bryce says:
You should just copy and paste this whole conversation up
Bryce says:
that'd be funny
Kristy says:
I will
Kristy says:
lol
Bryce says:
Perfect

Le Update

June is almost over, and things have changed for me now that the warmer weather is upon us. I have been doing less traditional workouts.. but it's mainly because I have been so active with other stuff. Work is super busy, of course, but I'm also walking atleast an hour every day just getting to work and back (oh the joy of being car-free), buzzing around doing stuff on my lunch, etc. We've been doing a ton more outdoor activities like frisbee in the park, bocce ball.. (that's hard work, right? ) hiking around town to different markets and festivals, and taking Nathan's dog for walks and all that. So I feel like I've been pretty active. I don't know how to quantify that amount of activity in terms of workouts.. but I think I'm probably pretty good on the activity level.

I've been making great strides on marketing efforts around the clinic, and they are paying off immensely. I've made a marketing "calendar" and each month has more ideas of things to implement into the clinic. So I already have the basic stuff on the go (business cards, a website, large ads in both the telephone books, etc). Then I have ongoing referral marketing thru BNI.. that's a weekly meeting and usually atleast one other "dance" (getting together with another BNI member for coffee to talk about ways we can promote each other and get to know them better).. So that keeps me pretty busy. The Marketing calendar idea is great cuz I write down my ideas for the month as well as target goals. So for instance, April's patient count was 43 office visits and 5 new patients. I set a goal for May of 50 office visits and 8 new patients, and at the end of the month I exceeded that goal with 57 office visits and 8 new patients. That was pretty exciting. Then May's ideas for marketing, I did a internal promotion in the clinic with a little display for FRA offering 50% off the first FRA treatment, and made up some flyers for it and whatnot. I also did an Open house for the women's only gym down the road, and donated a gift certificate as a door prize. I also donated a gift certificate to the Schizophrenic society for some golf tournament they were holding.

This month's idea was to start up a facebook group for the clinic. As of today there are already 103 members in the group, and I only made it a week ago, so that's looking pretty successful. I plan to write articles for the group and then I have access to over 100 people to send that out to. I just want to get the clinic into everyone's subconscious so when they hear someone needs a treatment or whatever, they immediately think of our clinic. The other thing I plan to do for this month is send out a Mail out to existing patients announcing my new designation (Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner .. yay! ). Reason being is 2 fold.. of course for the announcement, but also to touch base with patients that have fallen off of care, and just remind them that I'm still here. The third thing I'm working on this month is getting some articles written for a clinic newsletter. So, busy for me around here, which makes me a happy girl.

Bryce and others take the lead!

that's right people, I lose points for the month of may. I only worked out twice!! you heard me 2 times.. yeah.. it's pitiful. That being said, I do generally walk about an hour a day getting to work and whatnot, so it's not like I'm a complete slob.. however, I'm not counting that sort of thing as my workout.

So.. why was my workout schedule trashed, you might ask? This was my busiest month *ever* for work. I had so many patients booked in, it was completely awesome. And my paychecks were huge.. yay me! I look forward to this being the norm throughout the year.

I worked more on my business plan.. we're doing monthly checkups as a clinic about marketing ideas and goals. It's awesome to get everyone in on these ideas and working together. Infact, I have a staff meeting later tonight to go over stuff like this.

Anyways, back to work.

werk it!

after a slow start to the month, I'm getting caught up. I worked out on Tuesday, Wed, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So that's 7 workouts. 5 more to go in a week and a half, that's doable.

Worlds Hugest Slacker

yeah, I'm doing HORRIBLE on my resolution so far this month. I think I've only worked out twice (thank god for those Tuesday night workouts) .. I can't remember if I've done any other workouts at home. Actually maybe one, but I'll have to think about it to make sure.. So for now, It's already April 15th, and I have 10 workouts to go ><
Tonight, atleast, is our group workout, and I'm pretty well going to have to work out every day for the rest of the month to make up for my slackin. If there was ever a chance for Bryce to beat me in the challenge, this is possibly the month.

Tuesday night bailage

So, everyone bailed out on our tuesday night workouts because of the hockeygame last night. Except me. I did my workout downstairs at the gym in our building instead of at the pool. Anyways, I upped my weights on dumbell press and rows to 20lbs, but it was damn hard, and I think once I'm back at the pool where they have more selection of weights, I'll be using the 17.5 lb ones. 20 was just too much of a jump, I felt like I was going to have a brain aneurism trying to lift those damn things. The Rows were fine with a 20 lb weight tho, so I'll probably keep that up
Anyways, 1 workout done, 11 (or more) to go

Phew

Well, I got the last of my workouts in last night after work, in the knick of time. And, after speaking with Bryce at the party on the weekend, I was relieved to find out that my business thingy is done in quarters, so I don't have to actually do anything on it every single month, which is a relief, cuz I did crap-all in March for any sort of written plan. So, yay, I still got my 3 points!

This coming month will probably be easier to not procrastinate on working out, since it's the last month before I turn 30, and so I will probably have being in shape more on my mind to try to drown out the feeling of getting old. Atleast that's the hope.. lol

Ladies and Gentleman, the moment you've all been waiting for!!

the March Update!

I've been slackin on posts this month, so here it is, with a mere 4 days to go. In truth, I'll have to post once more at the end, since I haven't finished everything yet, goal wise. But here's the update.

So, it was a decent month for workouts. As is my trend, I still procrastinated a bit on workouts and so am having to do a few more at the end of the month to pick up the slack.. but, thank god for that tuesday evening thing, I'm actually not too far behind.

Workouts: Rough week was this: Tuesday night workouts with our group of friends, we get there at about 7 and do about an hour and a half of workout stuffs then go down to the pool for a sauna. I have been doing my weights, which I upped again a couple weeks ago.. then 30 minutes of cardio, then stretching and mat work.
Saturday Qi Gong class: This is over now, but for most of the month I had a 4 hour Qi Gong class on Saturdays
other : working out in the gym donstairs.. usually only 1 per week with the other stuff, but now that Qi gong is over, I'll have to do more.

A few funny moments: So Paul and I went to workout together downstairs on friday I think it was.. and he always does an hour on the stairmaster.. every day.. he's crazy. Anyways, I was kinda thinking.. how hard can an hour really be. So I decided to do an hour too. Anyways, I finished the hour ans was feeling all proud of myself, and it really wasn't that bad at all. And I said to Paul about how I burned 912 calories (which I was thinking was pretty awesome) and asked how much he burned and he said 1300.. haha.. I felt pretty lame after that. No wonder he's so skinny now.

Anyways, I have 2 more workouts to go, which I'll do 1 tonight and 1 on monday since I'll be in Vancouver for the weekend

Le Workout

So, just incase anyone is wondering what I've been doing in my workouts, this is it:
1st set of stuff:
Flat Dumbbell Press with 2 15 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Squats w/ 2 10 lb weight - 10 reps x 3 sets
Dumbbell Row- 2 15 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets

2nd set of stuff:
Military Press - 2 10lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Lunges - 2 10 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Reverse Fly - 2 8 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets

Other:
Lat pull down - not sure the weight, it's the 4th notch on the weight machine

Mat work:
-Pelvic Tilt: 10 x 2 sets
-Modified dead bug (laying on back with legs in the air, and you do kindof a reverse leg lift) - 10 on each side x 2 sets
-Cat/Cow - 10 x 2 sets
-Another one I forget the name of - you sortof "wag your tail" for lack of a more glamourous description - actually, the yoga name for it is "Tigeress" I think
-Planks: 2 sets of 45 seconds each, front, and side planks
-this thing on the ball where you lay facing up, have your feet on it and pull them under your bum as you are keeping your body raised up in a plank - 10 x 2 sets

Cardio:
30 minutes on the Eliptical - I burn about 400 calories according to the machine in this time. So I'm booting along relatively fast.

Stretching:
Hamstring and Hip flexor stretches mainly.

So it usually takes me about an hour and a half to do all of this workout. I'm doing the entire thing atleast twice a week. Some days I'm just doing the cardio, and some days I just do the weights. But Tuesday nights we have a group of us that goes to the Commonwealth pool, so that is my exact routine on tuesdays and one other night at the gym in my building.

The weights are a lot faster the way I do them than the way the boys do them.. rather than sit around and grunt or whatever they do in between every set, I just work a different muscle group, so I can go straight from my DB Press to my squats to my DB Row without taking a rest, then do that 3 more times. As a result, it takes me 40 minutes or so to do my whole weight regime, then I can get to the mat work and cardio.

So there you have it. And, FYI, I just finished this exact workout minutes before starting on this post, so I only have tomorrow's workout to do and I have met my resolution for the month. Yay me.. and I blogged about it, and I worked on my financial plan. I made a whole spreadsheet for tracking exactly when and how many patients/money I'm bringing in. It is quite fascinating. In fact, when Sean saw it, he said he wants all of us at the clinic to make one up so that we can see how different marketing things effect business.

Jam out with your clam out

So, the month is coming to a close.. mighty fast, I might add. With only 29 days I'm having to squeeze in those last two workouts tonight and tomorrow, but I can tell you forsure that I will have met my quota of workouts this month as of tomorrow afternoon.

I realize, once again, that I am a horrible procrastinator if I let myself do it. I will almost always leave til tomorrow what I don't want to do today. Case in point: Paul is in San Francisco right now. Before he left, I had this little vision in my head about how I was going to clean up the house on the very first day he was gone so that, for a whole week, I could live in a nice, tidy, boy-free house. Well, monday ended up being very busy at work, and by the time I finished everything, I plopped down on the couch, and spent the entire night watching stupid tv shows. I think I must have watched about 3 hours of this show that I'd never even heard of before called "Jon and Kate plus 8" about this couple who had a set of twins, then tried for a 3rd, and had sextuplets. yep.. 6 babies at once. Anyways, it was a trippy show, and they kept airing one after another so I somehow kept watching.. transfixed to my tv for the entire night. I didn't do a damn thing around the house. So tuesday, turns out I don't have patients, so I think to myself "cool, I'll have time to watch this safety course thing that I have to do, and tidy up the house" .. Nope again. I slept til 11:30 (granted, I have been sleep deprived for the last 3 weeks, so I did actually need the sleep) and then Paul and I lamented about how much we miss each other over msn. Then I had a waxing appointment, then met my friends for our tuesday night workout at the Commonwealth pool. Still no house cleaning. .. Yesterday I got off work early and ended up spending 4 hours visiting friends downtown instead of going home, then went to this womens self defense seminar until 10pm. So here it is Thursday.. I haven't done the dishes even once since Paul left, and the house is a sty. On the up-side tho, atleast I'm on schedule with my workouts :P

Getting there

I'm doing better on my workouts since my last post. I still am going to have to workout a fair bit next week to meet my quota of 12, but that's ok, cuz Paul is down in San Francisco, and I'll have a lot of time to kill all by myself at home.

So, I have done my weight workout 4 times this month(3 in the past week), that is going well. I upped my sets from 2 sets of 15 to 3 sets of 12. I'm using 10 lb wieghts for most of everything now. The squats and lunges are getting a little less lame, so all is well there. Been stretching as part of that workout also. My qigong thing is going well, I've been doing the meditation almost every night before bed, however, I'm only counting the 3.5 hours classes as being a "workout". Other than that, I've done a hike, went swimming, and tonight this Taekwon Do class, so I think as of Saturday I'll be at 7 workouts this month. That means I pretty well have to workout every day next week to make my quota. That's ok tho. I plan to do weights on Sunday, cardio monday, weights again tuesday (I am going to the pool with a group of friends to workout and then sauna tuesday night), Wednesday If I do anything I'll do cardio, then I'll do my last workout on Friday probably, cuz Thursday is usually a really busy day.

In other news, I have got a haircut, and it is awesome. It's an inverted bob, pretty short in the back, a little longer in the front, just below chin length. Anyways, I got that done on Wednesday, and I've been having a blast so far figuring out how to style it. Believe it or not, I even started wearing makeup to work cuz my hair looks so awesome, I figured I better put on makeup too. Aggie and Liz are having a hayday with me, turning me into a girly girl. It's quite fun actually. I don't think I'll go quite to the extent of Liz tho, who gives massage in high heels. lol.. plus, I'd be like 6'3" in heels, and I save that for special occasions :P

Anyways, I'll get a camera and get Paul to take a pic of my new hair.

Over and out.

February 12th

ok, this month has been terrible for my workouts so far. I did that stupid Bikrams yoga with Aggie a couple weeks ago, and my back has been fucked ever since, so I have only been doing really chill stuff like a hike here and there or some Qi Gong. I have yet to do my weight workout this month! I know, that is terrible and I'm going to have to get my act together if I want to meet my schedule of 12 workouts for this month. However, Paul is going away to San Francisco for a week for work, and I know I'll probably work out every day out of sheer boredom while he's gone. So that will help things along a great deal. Also, I am starting Qi Gong classes again on saturdays, and that is 3.5 hours of Qi Gong, so I'm going to count that as a workout once a week, but I won't count the at home practice because my "workout" resolution was actually supposed to be for hard workouts, not gentle things like Qi Gong.

Next friday I am also doing a Tae Kwon Do class cuz this guy in our BNI group who runs a school has invited the group to a free class. Honestly, I get the impression that tae kwon do is kinda crap, but I'll give it a go. I am suspicious of anything where you can have a black belt in 3 or 4 years of going to only 2 classes a week. If that were the case, I'd have a black belt in Karate already from the 5 years I did of it when I was a teenager, and quite frankly, I don't think I deserve a black belt for my knowledge of karate, so I don't know how this is any different. I feel like these programs that propell people thru the ranks really trivializes the spirit behind the meaning of "black belt"

As wikipedia says: The term black belt has become widely known as way to describe an expert in martial arts

Maybe my idea of "expert" is different from the idea of other peoples.. who knows.. but as I see most martial arts as life long endeavors, I don't see how someone can be an expert in so short a time. I mean, if it was a 40 hour a week program, then sure.. (even after my 4 year TCM program of over 40 hours a week of class and studying, I still don't feel like an "expert" at all) but 2 hours a week? Come on! It's a joke.

January comes to a close

Workouts: Check
Marketting Plan in the works: Check
Blog about it: Check
Money bryce is going to owe me at the end of the year: Cheque

Section 1: Situation Analysis

Current Service: General practice with TCM style Acupuncture, Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine and topical oil and tincture sales. I also teach a few classes on TCM related subjects at the Monterey Center.

Current Marketing: BNI (business referral group), Business Cards, Website, Health shows, community talks/workshops.

Current Marketing Advantages: The ability to go in on marketing costs with my colleagues;
There are no other acupuncturists in this area of town, about a mile radius; The clinic has a pre-existing website and branding that we all are able to use; specialization of Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture gives me a niche market

Current Marketing Challenges: lack of money for expensive marketing ideas, the city is quite saturated with acupuncturists already

I have been in business for 1 year. My patient base is 71 patients, with 32 of them coming to see me regularly at the moment. I am seeing roughly 10 patients a week.
There is a breakdown of the number of patients I saw per month for the last 11 months since I started:
March 2007: 20
April 2007: 16
May 2007: 31
June 2007: 52
July 2007: 57
August 2007: 39
September 2007: 37
October 2007: 33
November 2007: 24
December 2007: 29
January 2007: 42

Resolution/Weekend update

There are 10 days left in the month, and I still have a ton of workouts to do to make my "goal" of 12.. I think I've done 7 now, I'll have to check on my computer at home. Which means 5 more in the next 10 days. That's not too bad, I suppose. Zeke, our kinesiologist, created a workout routine for me that I'm supposed to be doing daily (atleast part of it) and the weights every couple days. I have to be honest, my arms and legs are *still* sore from my session with him on Friday. He had me doing a bunch of weights, lunges, squats, etc. I haven't done lunges in like 10 years since I played volleyball, so that hurt afterwards.. I was also doing some benchpress type stuff with free weights, and my pecs are still killing me.

I was at the health fair over the weekend. Liz and I shared the booth on Sunday, so Saturday we went around and scoped out the fair to get ideas for our booth (Sean did the Saturday at our booth) Then we came to the clinic to pick up our stuff, then to Liz's place and mine to grab a few things for decorations, then we met Sean at 6 to trade over the booth and set up our crap. That was a ton of work.. we had so much stuff, and we had to pack it into Liz's car like a Tetris game, then haul it all into the fair. Our booth looked awesome tho, so it was worth it. Then we headed back to my place where we all played Rockband, drank wine, and ate natcho's for the evening. Sunday was madness.. we were at the health fair all day, and our booth was swamped. Finally, at 5:30, we could pack up our stuff and haul it back to the clinic. I think that took about 2 1/2 hours.. I got home at 8pm totally exhausted and jumped into a hot bath. Today I didn't want to get out of bed, it didn't feel like I had a weekend at all.. but what do you do. I'm going to try to get in a workout tonight when I get home.

Final Day of my Cleanse

So, here it is, the 12th day of my cleanse. I'm pretty ready for it to be over. I miss bread. That being said tho, I have enjoyed the meals I had during the cleanse.. it was alot of stuff like sauteed fish with rice and steamed veggies... simple, but tasty. I also ate a ton of apples on my cleanse.. that was kindof my fallback snack to have when I didn't feel like thinking of anything else.

Workouts are going well, I have done 6 so far this month, which keeps me right on track for my 12 per month. I am looking forward to this friday. I have an appointment with Zeke, our kinesiologist in the clinic. Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with Sean (chiro) to get a full assessment of what's going on with my body, and I'll take the results to Zeke who will help me develop a workout routine that will touch on everything I need to do for my body to be at it's best. I was feeling like I needed to do something like that cuz I'm just doing a few weights for my arms in my workouts, and I know this isn't enough, but I wasn't too sure what to do. Zeke wants to trade kine. sessions for acupuncture, so that's perfect.
Another cool thing is Liz wants to start trading massage for acupuncture, so I have an hour massage scheduled for tomorrow too :D Damn I love trades.

Business: Well, there's a lot on the go right now for my business, although I haven't started actively typing out a marketing plan, I have stuff on the go for marketing.
1) I just found out the results to my TCMP exam, and I passed, so this means getting my registration stuff sorted out, and then changing my business cards to have my new credentials, changing the sign on the door, changing the website, and also the Canpages (the 2nd yellow pages) ad.
2) Health Fair - next weekend Liz and I are sharing a booth at the Health Fair. I plan to make some coupons to hand out for 50% off a treatment. Which I think is a smokin deal, and will hopefully get people into the clinic.
3) New person in the clinic - this is me indirectly marketing myself. I had an appointment for some waxing last wednesday. The esthetician I see is amazing, and she mentioned to me that she is going to be moving clinic spaces. She hadn't decided on one yet, and we are looking for a part time person to share Julie's room with her now that Liz is going full time. Anyways, the more I thought about it, the sweeter it sounded that she could move in to our clinic. It would be a good fit for a number of reasons:
1) She has a huge clientelle that she would expose to our clinic.
2) It's not duplicating services that we already offer.
3) She would then refer to us as she saw fit, and us to her.
4) She is one of the best estheticians in town, thus having another really high
quality practitioner in our clinic.
All these things, I think, will help our clinic to get more and more busy, and the more diversity of patients that are coming thru here, the more chance of referrals. Although at first glance, an esthetician might not be the most likely candidate to work in a clinic with chiro, kine, massage, acupuncture.. I think that if you are paying attention to your body, from either a health standpoint or an esthetic standpoint, you are more likely to want to feel good from the other as well.

Day 8

Today is day 8 of my cleanse. I'm finished on Monday the 14th. I was originally thinking I might do a second cleanse after this one, but have decided against it for a couple of reasons:
1) I feel pretty great atm and don't think I actually need to do the 2nd one, and
2) I just found out that I passed my TCMP exam, and I want to celebrate, which means all my friends will likely buy me shots (atleast that's what happened last time - a fun evening, I was so happy over my exam, with a fair number of shots in me, I was laughing and crying at the same time most of the night. Paul was laughing at me a lot, and I don't blame him )

The cleanse is going well tho, I'm feeling quite energetic. The only thing that is a pain in the butt is having to prepare food and really think it thru a lot more than I'm used to. It's pretty damn hard to get anything that is "ok" to eat on my cleanse at any restaurant around here, so if I don't make enough food each day, I'm kinda hooped.

Exercise wise: All is going well, I finally got into the gym last night at 9pm after a very busy day. I intended to go right when I got home, but by the time I made dinner, got groceries, cleaned up from dinner, washed my sheets for the clinic, etc etc, it was 9. I am finding it easier to workout tho. I have mentioned before that I find running on some machine excruciatingly boring, but it has been getting easier every single time. I believe I've done 5 workouts so far this month.. which keeps me well on track with the "12 per month" thing. Yesterday I upped the time on my cardio by 5 minutes (10 minutes if you count me racing back upstairs halfway thru my workout when I realized I'd left walnuts toasting in the oven ) I also increased my weights a bit. So I did 25 minutes on the eliptical, and 3 sets of 12 each of military press(2 8lb weights), biceps (10 lb weights) and triceps (10 lb).. and some situps and stretching. Not too shabby. Honestly, I could probably go way more hardcore on my workouts, but my intention is just to workout regularily, so I'm starting slow. As long as I break a sweat and get my heart rate up a bit, I'm happy. Once I'm into the routine of going 3 to 4 times a week, I'll start going longer on the cardio.

I made an appointment to see Sean (or chiro) for early next week. Once I get an assessment done of what muscles are weak, I'll go see Zeke (our kinesiologist) and get the exercises I need to strengthen the "problem" areas of my body. That is my plan. It's a simple plan, but I think it will work out just fine.

Marketing Plan

Whilst reading some of the past issues from the Chinese Medicine Times, I came across this little article which I thought had some good ideas. As part of my resolution, I am going to work on this marketing plan, so this might be helpful:

Tested Methods to Increase the Power of your Clinic Ads, Flyers, Sales Letters and Promotions

by Gavin Hurlimann

What makes one clinic marketing promotion get a huge response and another to fail miserably? More often than not, it’s the execution. It’s the way you do it.

All advertising and marketing is based on fixed principles. Advertising operates according to fundamental laws and not chance. These laws and principles were set out by Claude C. Hopkins (1867 – 1932) in 1923. They are based on 36 years of tested and monitored advertising – ads, letters and promotions whose results were monitored and compared.

These advertising laws were set by doing marketing campaigns on thousands of different services and products, from toothpaste to heavy machinery. Thousands of ads, headlines and layouts were compared and analyzed. There are some exceptions that don’t follow these laws, but they are few and far between. These services or products are usually in such high demand that they would have been successful regardless.

Here are the eleven laws that will increase the results of your advertising…

#1. Free vouchers, gift certificates with a “scarcity” factor and 0800 numbers increase response. Countless tests prove that free vouchers or gift certificates multiply returns. People defer action, then forget. A gift certificate or free voucher (see pages 90 to 93 for vouchers and gift certificates) reminds the person to take action and to either call your clinic or take it with them to the place of business. 0800 numbers encourage people to phone simply because it’s free.

#2. Always use 8, 10 or 12 font size. Almost of our reading is done in newspaper size print. If you test your results, you’ll find that oversize font does not pay. Double your size and you double your cost. If your ad or flyer is interesting, people will read it in a font size they are used to. If it’s not, they won’t read it in any size or any style.

#3. Don’t use capitals. Most of our reading is done in upper and lower case types. People are used to that. If you write in capitals, it takes time to study
them out and you’ll lose readers that way. Follow the natural and usual format.

#4. Pictures usually don’t sell. In most cases, the cost of the extra space taken up by a picture will not pay for itself. You must experiment by trying ads with, and without pictures and working out the cost of each. The one exception to this rule is a “headshot” of you (smiling). Often this will create the feeling of “familiarity and trust” with the reader.

#5. Always tell the full story. People don’t read ads in a series. Every ad should tell the full story. When you attract a readers’ attention, present all the arguments for your service or product. You may not get another reading from that person in months. Always include all the important benefits your service or product has. You wouldn’t send out a salesperson for your clinic and tell them to “keep it brief”. You’d want them to present all the advantages of coming to your clinic and not your competitors. Newspaper or flyer advertising is simply “Salesmanship in Print”, so the general rule for ads, flyers and letters is always…

“The more you tell, the more you sell”

#6. Superlative claims don’t count. Give actual facts and specifics. To say something like, “best in town”, “for all your health needs” or “outstanding clinical results” makes no impression. These are expected claims and the reader loses interest and respect for you because of the exaggeration. If you say, “same day appointment” or “no appointment necessary” (when you’re starting out), “serving the health needs of XXX community since XXX” or “official treatment provider for XYZ rugby team”, people will realize you have credibility as they don’t expect you to lie about these claims in print.

#7. Never advertise negatively. Always present the positive aspect of your service or product. Show and feature the great results your treatment has provided for your patients by including one or two line testimonials in your advertising. All people seek the same basic wants in life – happiness, safety, health, love and acceptance. Show prospects through your advertising that you and your clinic can provide these wants.

#8. Prevention does not sell. Cure does. All tests in advertising show that people will do little to prevent ill heath but they will do almost anything to cure it. Patients seek the latest improvements, advantages and new ways to satisfy their desires in life. Focus your ad copy on providing the solutions and your advertising results will quickly multiply.

#9. It is an uphill battle to sell your service in print (or in person) without vouchers and free trials. To succeed in your business, you must let prospective new patients sample your treatment skills or health products. This allows them to be “emotionally” involved with you and your clinic. So offer them a FREE initial consultation on enquiring to do this. The cost of this free “sampling” is the cheapest way to get the highest results from your ads.

Free “sampling” of your clinic will build up your business in the quickest and cheapest way, particularly if you are starting from scratch.

#10. Learn what headline most appeals to your target market. You will multiply the results of your ads by eight, fourteen or nineteen times by a change of headline. A headline acts as a flashing light with a person’s name on it. You select what you read by headlines. So it is with ads. You must always measure what effect a change in headline has on your results (see page 38 for the best headlines).

#11. Never rely on your judgement and experience in advertising. Test everything you do in the most exact way possible. In Australia, a panel of advertising “experts” was asked to vote on a series of ads to determine which ads had the best results. In all cases, they got 50% wrong when comparing these ads. Are you game to say you know better?...

“Test everything you do and monitor the results”.

Always “sell” your benefits.

So having now established your “thing” or UBA, you should now concentrate on “branding it”

The best way to do this is to decide on your “benefits to the patient” and stick to them. Your benefits are the main reasons why people come to your clinic in the first place. As we have already discussed, benefits are what the patient gets from using your service, herbal formulas or other health products.

However, benefits must not be confused with “features”. In all your marketing you must always turn features into benefits. Most clinic businesses when producing a flier, brochure, or even a business card will merely list their features without pointing out the benefits of those features.

For example, here is a list of some common clinic features one always sees in many NZRA practitioners’ advertisements or fliers…

‘NZRA registered’
‘ACC healthcare provider’
‘Free parking’
‘We are on the main street’
‘We are right next to the XYZ medical centre’
‘We are the largest importer of…’
‘We have the best and largest variety of…’
‘We care’
“Masters Degree China”

These are all features that still don’t tell the prospective patient what these features mean to them or what benefit these are to them. By adding a benefit to each feature listed you can turn any piece of marketing material into a great selling tool that entices a prospective patient to your clinic and not your competitors. For example, add the following benefits to the above listed features and you will see what I mean.

NZRA registered -
‘So you will receive only professional, qualified treatment from us’

ACC healthcare provider -
‘Prompt, qualified ACC injury treatment from us’

Free parking -
‘No hassles with parking for you’

We are on the main street -
‘Easy for you to find us at our central location’

Next to the XYZ medical centre -
‘Convenient ACC referrals for any injury available from Dr XXX next door ’

We are the largest importer of -
‘Because of our large range, all your health requirements are taken care of here’

We have the best and largest variety of -
‘You will have no need to walk all over town’

We care -
‘We give you personal, individualized treatment every time’

Masters Degree China -
‘Providing a wealth of treatment knowledge tailored specifically for you’.

Benefits are the most important “selling tool” for any clinic business and should always be used when presenting your service or products. Never market on features alone. For a patient to pay for your services or product, you need to spell out what the benefits of your service and clinic are for them.

Benefits when constantly used become your “brand”. You already have a great CAM skill and now it’s the actions and methods you employ to deliver that skill that your clinic business will become known for. In other words, the benefits to the patient of dealing with you.

You should write down all the features of your clinic business and turn them into benefits. List all of the benefits of dealing with your clinic business and have them visible everywhere. Don’t just rely on yourself and your staff to tell patients - have these benefits in everyone’s view every day.

Put them on all your advertising material, on your windows, on your newsletters, and on your business cards. Actually, your business card should be the number one brochure for your business. Don’t waste your money by just putting your name and contact details on it, but also use it to sell your service and products (see pages 76 to 79 for business cards).

Prospective patients want to know why they should come to your business and not your competitors. The reasons “why” are your benefits and they form your brand and what it stands for. So you must push your brand in front of everyone out there, and the best way to do this is to sell the benefits. Don’t sell the features, sell the benefits of your service and you will automatically sell the product - which is your TCM clinic - and get more profits.

Set out to create an image that people are drawn to and then be consistent in developing that image in the public eye. Create that perception of value by always “selling” your benefits (see page 23 for UBAs and Branding).

This article is an excerpt from “How to get more profits from your clinic – even if you have little or no money!” Gavin Hurlimann is the editor in chief of the NZRA Journal of TCM, a practicing acupuncturist in Auckland, New Zealand and an acknowledged expert in marketing for healthcare practitioners. For more info, email: hurlimann@slingshot.co.nz

Rockband

I have spent all day playing Rockband.. and since I've been playing drums, I figure I've gotten a workout :P
But in all seriousness.. it is that "womanly" time of month, so I'm refraining from the gym for today. However, I'm still on track with my cleanse. Yesterday's menu consisted of 3 eggs scrambled with herbs, about a cup of soaked almonds, which I began to get really sick of by the end of the day, but they were all I had left of my work snacks, an apple, steamed broccoli with tahini and lemon on it, a plate of Quinoa also with tahini sauce, the rest of the cold smoked tuna loin (maybe a small fist size?) 1/4 of a cucumber, another apple with tahini sauce, and a few cups of tea throughout the day, either mint or a homemade concoction I was making with the leftover lemon peels from all the lemons I've been using, sliced ginger, 1 clove bud, and 1 bay leaf. It's pretty good, and apparently cloves are great for the anti candida diet I'm on with this cleanse.
Then we had a gang of people come over to play rock band last night, and they all drank beer and ate cookies dipped in chocolate that I can't have.. I wanted cookies.. but I was good and I didn't lose my willpower. Yay me.

Today (so far) I have had apple and tahini, my herb supplements, 3 eggs with half a chicken breast, a "coleslaw" thing that I made with red cabbage, orange pepper, grated up broccoli hearts, celery seed, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a tarragon olive oil; half a baked buttercup squash, 4 or so cups of my homemade lemon and herb tea, and some more of the coleslaw. I'm probably going to eat the other half of that baked squash in a bit, and maybe some Quinoa since there's leftovers. I admit, I'm craving something sweet right now.. but I can't think of anything other than apples and tahini to quench that craving so I might just try to ignore it.

Day 1

Today Bryce convinced me to join his Resolution Challenge.
I have a bunch of health goals, tho the main ones are short term rather than long term, such as this cleanse I am on. However, I do want to make a commitment to working out 3-4 times a week, so that is my goal for the year. So I had that in mind before this talk of the challenge came up, and have already started on that.

Why, you might ask, do I have these health goals? Well, let me tell you:
This year I turn 30. This is slightly scary to me.. and I figure I've been lucky so far to be in such good shape as I am, and it's probably only cuz I'm young and resilient and all that. Working out for me has been difficult in the past few years cuz I find it exceptionally boring to run on a machine for an hour. When I was growing up and in university and stuff, I played a ton of sports; Volleyball, Soccer, Karate, Aikido, Track and Field, etc.. so I was always in shape, but it never seemed hard cuz I was having fun doing it. Once I wasn't on those teams anymore, workouts were much more whimsical and unscheduled.. which translated into nonexistant.. lol
So anyways, now that I'm going to be 30, I figure I better get my act together.

I am starting out the year with a cleanse. It's a 12 day detox diet and herbal supplement thing. Here are the details:
http://www.wrc.net/wrcnet_content/dietplans/d-tox_diet_12day.htm
I can't eat any flour, sugar, alcohol, mushrooms, dairy (except butter), or peanuts, or tropical fruits. There's a ton of stuff I can eat tho, so it's fine. I think the hardest part so far is the flour.. I eat a lot of things like toast and crackers and stuff usually.

I might keep track of my foods for the whole 12 days, just for kicks. so here is the first few days of the year:

Jan 1st:
Not on my cleanse yet. I woke up hung over sometime around noon, then we went for breakfast by 4pm and I had steak and eggs with pancakes with a ton of syrup, and tea. For "dinner" since it was only a few hours later and we were at a movie, I ate half a bucket of gross theatre popcorn. the end

January 2nd:
Workout: 20 min on elliptical trainer, weight reps on military press, biceps and triceps 3 sets of 12 with skipping rope in between each set for 100 count. Stretching.

I wasn't on my cleanse yet, but I didn't eat any sugar that day, I mainly had leftovers from the turkey dinners and the new years eve party. The only sugar I had was whatever was in the cranberry sauce (which I made from scratch, so it wasn't that much)

January 3rd: started Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox (12 day cleanse) .. I have to stick to a diet with no sugar or flour etc. plus take supplements twice a day
Food eaten: 3 eggs – scrambled with Thyme, Oregano and salt
mint tea
1 cup of almonds for snack throughout day
1 cup of Greens+
2 bok choy steamed with ginger and a touch of sesame oil
A huge salad with red leaf lettuce, orange pepper, cabbage, red onion, carrot, tomato, with fresh lemon juice and tarragon olive oil for dressing. A few slices of cold smoked tuna on top
An apple with tahini dressing
Ginger, clove, bay leaf and lemon boiled in water for tea.


More to come as the cleanse continues