Our Mission to help practitioners thrive!

The mission of The Healing Center is to provide excellent, heart-centered healing and personal growth opportunities to the Beverly and greater North Shore communities through exceptional services and classes. The Healing Center is a collaborative association of talented teachers and practitioners that strives to offer the neighboring communities a diverse assortment of wellness services and learning experiences. We want to be the wellness center established in on the North Shore as the place to go to experience healing and personal growth.

In addition to our commitment to quality services and classes, The Healing Center is devoted to supporting it's practitioners. Our practitioners feel called to bring love, compassion, healing and peace into the world through values-based businesses and sustainable lifestyles. The Healing Center was founded by mentor and coach, Joanna Scaparotti, RMT whose passion is to help

practitioners thrive and succeed as heart-centered entrepreneurs. The Healing Center offers an Apprenticeship to each practitioner to guide him or her in creating a solid, sustainable foundation for his or her practice. The Apprenticeship provides the practitioner with all the inner and outer tools needed to become a successful Service-oriented, heart-centered, entrepreneur and practitioner.

This Apprenticeship is for anyone who feels called to be of Service and is excited and enthusiastic about offering healing and wellness opportunities to people on the North Shore. It's for those who are truly committed to offering their gifts and skills to help people heal and become well, and who are committed to creating a successful, sustainable business. Other support provided for practitioners includes a monthly support group, Your Profitable Practice, for local practitioners. There is also a Vibrant Business ~ Vibrant Life online support group with a monthly group coaching call.

Why join us?

There are many benefits to having your practice at The Healing Center. The Healing Center provides most of the things you need to run a professional practice. We provide all of the ambiance and little extras that make a difference for your clients. At The Healing Center, we take care of all the overhead of maintaining an office, so all you have to do is show up. We manage the rent, utilities, beverage supplies, cleaning and dealing with the property management company.

The Healing Center is located in an elegant 1920's building right downtown in Beverly on Cabot Street. 234 Cabot's front doors are open during business hours, and for evening and weekend appointments your clients can call up on the intercom system for you to buzz them in. As your clients enter through the double doors, they first notice the high ceiling and marble staircase leading them up to the second floor.

The Healing Center is located in Suite 2, to the right at the top of the staircase. Our suite has high ceilings and some of the original wood molding that gives it a warm charm and comfortable feeling. Your clients enter into our cozy waiting room and are greeted with relaxing music, soothing lighting, and beverages. To the left is the treatment room which is equipped with soft lighting, an adjustable massage & reiki table, and simple, sophisticated décor. Ahead of you is our larger, sunny office which is used for small group classes, private consultations, Reiki classes, and occasionally for bodywork treatments. Here a mini-fridge, microwave, and other dining items are available for your use. We also provide a desk, printer, office supplies, and unlimited wi-fi internet access; as well as local and long distance phone calling from our office land line.

Other benefits of joining The Healing Center include your listing on our website, promoting your services on our Facebook Fan Page and email newsletter, cross promotion and referrals with other practitioners at The Healing Center, associate membership in the local Chamber of Commerce via The Healing Center, and client appointments generated through The Healing Center's own promotional activities. There is more to come! In 2011, we will be adding linen service, online scheduling and gift certificate purchasing through MindBodyOnline.com, credit card processing, and access to health insurance for practitioners.

Is The Healing Center right for you?

The practitioners at The Healing Center are passionate about being of service and helping people feel better and change their lives. They are determined to make a difference in the community by teaching and modeling what they know about how to live well and experience abundance. Our practitioners are committed to working for themselves and making a comfortable living doing so. They are dedicated to growing and maintaining authentic businesses that are in alignment with their values and integrate seamlessly with their chosen wellness lifestyles. Our practitioners are enthusiastic about creative collaboration with other like minded professionals. They are excited to come to work each day because they have wonderful clients and feel fulfilled by the difference they are making in the world.

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

One year Anniversary!

Dear friends,

I am excited that today marks one year since The Healing Center was born in our beautiful location in downtown Beverly!

Opening a wellness center where people could come for services and education from empowered practitioners and teachers has been a dream of mine for years! I am proud and grateful to have reached this milestone, and I thank you all for your encouragement, participation and support over the last year.

You may have noticed that I took a break from writing my weekly articles. That's because I have been busy visioning my hopes and intentions for my practice coaching heart-centered entrepreneurs and The Healing Center for 2011. My new marketing assistant Maria Barresi has been sending out updates for THC, and you will continue to see more emails and posts on our Facebook page from her!

There will be more opportunities for healing and learning at THC in 2011, and even more empowerment for our practitioners!

In the next couple of weeks, I will be introducing a new Apprenticeship program for practitioners, and I will be accepting applications for those who want to apprentice "live" at The Healing Center. A virtual version of the Apprenticeship will also be available for those who aren't local or who already have a location for their practice.

There is also a Vibrant Business & Life mastermind in the works for more established practioners who need creative, strategic inspiration and support to take their businesses to the next level. Our first retreat will be in January, so stay tuned for details about that too!

We're planning a celebration of our one year anniversary for later this fall, and I hope to see you there!

Best wishes!

Joanna Scaparotti
Success coaching for heart-centered entrepreneurs!

The Healing Center
234 Cabot Street in Beverly, MA
978-338-5571
info@joannascaparotti.com
Joanna's Website

Be yourself and change the world! Helping heart-centered entrepreneurs thrive in life and business. Ask me how.

Create Results in your Business

A new client comes in, and the session is great.

At least you thought so, but she doesn't book a follow up appointment with you. So, as usual, you put your energy into finding as many new clients as possible with low-cost promotions, free samples at the mall or an event happening in your town, and big signage outside your office.

Let's face it. This is a never ending cycle of despair. All this work to keep your practice booked with new clients who often don't come back after the first session is frustrating, disappointing and exhausting.

There's got to be a better way!

Thank goodness there really is a better way. It happens when you design your practice around results oriented services. These services not only benefit your clients by helping them reach their goals; they also benefit you by keeping your appointment book filled with repeat clients. This means you no longer have to spend all that time and energy at street fairs trying to attract new clients with a free sample and coupon to try your services.

Take a nice big breath and let go of that cycle of despair! You are going to find this approach liberating and exciting. It will take a little pre-planning, but it's worth every second.

So let's explore this in a little bit more depth. So what are results oriented services? This is when you offer your clients a service package or program designed to help them meet their goals.

Here are some of examples:

• Instead of your usual one hour $80 massage, you offer your clients a "Relieve your Back Pain" package of 5 sessions for $350 (normally $400).
• Instead of that deeply relaxing one hour $70 Reiki or Polarity session, you offer a "Replace Chronic Stress with Chronic Relaxation" program of 6 weekly sessions for $360 (normally $420).
• Instead of a weekly drop-in yoga class for $15, you offer a "10 Weeks to a Better Body" yoga series for $125 (normally $150).
• Instead of new clients dropping in to try various services at your wellness center, you offer an "Introductory Package" that includes admission to 2 yoga classes, a 60 minute massage and 45 minute reflexology or reiki session for $140 (normally $170).

See where I'm going with this?

Results oriented services get your appointment book filled with repeat clients who pay in advance.

How awesome is that?!

While some clients are going to stop coming in at the end of the package because they have achieved their goal successfully, others will sign up again because it makes their lives that much better.

Either way, you have some happy clients on your hands who are going to tell their friends and family about how great they feel when they work with you.

Approaching your services this way is going to get you out of that promotional cycle of despair very quickly, as it fills your pipeline with happy repeat clients and the people they refer to you. 2010 is a great opportunity to introduce some results oriented services to your clients, so see how to do it below.

Your Transformational Homework:

• Look over your notes about your special gifts, talents and skills and your unique niche. Use this information to start crafting results oriented packages or programs that will let clients experience your best work.
• Ask your current repeat clients what benefits they get from seeing you regularly and use this information to craft a special results oriented program just for people like them.
• Put together a couple of results oriented packages (no more than 2 or 3 to start) and email to your list, put up on your website or on a flyer.
• Talk about them to everyone you meet. Explain the value and invite your current and potential new clients to sign up for a program.

PS. If you find these steps valuable, and you're an emerging heart-centered entrepreneur looking for the keys to transform your business into an authentic, heart-centered, profitable business, there's a workshop for you on August 24th. If you'd like to know more about how to apply these steps to transform your own emerging business, join me at Learn the Six Steps to Success here in Beverly, MA.

Find your Niche

Does this resonate?

You are so excited and passionate about the healing benefits of your techniques or products that you often describe your business by listing all of them to anyone who will listen. You are certain in your heart that anyone and everyone will get amazing results if they would just get involved with your business, so you make sure your marketing materials are inclusive for everyone.

How is that working for you?

It's probably not working super well, and that's because it is one of the marketing mistakes that heart-centered entrepreneurs make from the heart. The truth is that we (myself included as someone who has done this) want to advertise the benefits of our business as a panacea (cure-all) for everyone because in our hearts we know our services or products can help others, and we want to help as many people as possible feel better as fast as possible. We really do. We sincerely care about everyone feeling well, and it's hard to wrap our minds around the idea that this kind of marketing does not help us attract the clients that we need to make our practice financially viable.

This is a really crucial step, so I want you to stay with me here. Please pause for a moment and take a deep breath and allow yourself to be open to this information I am going to share. If resistance comes up, don't judge yourself or this information.

Keep breathing, and keep an open mind. Ok, ready? Put down your sincere passions (but it really can help anyone!) for a few minutes and come with me to explore the kind of heart-centered marketing that will attract the clients and customers that your practice needs to float financially.

Bring to mind a product or a service that you purchased recently and think about what motivated you to invest your money in this way. It was either because you needed it to help you feel better in some way or because you wanted it to treat yourself in some way. In addition to your reason, I'm supposing that the product or service that you chose over other products and services resonated in your heart as the right product or service for you. It was right for you - that's why you purchased it. It spoke to you and you recognized that it would fulfill your need or desire.

Let that sink in for a minute.

The marketing and advertising that gets the sale is the marketing and advertising that speaks to people so clearly that they easily recognize that it will solve their problem, meet their need or fulfill their desire.

Now how does that apply to you?

Well, it's not your job to solve everyone's problems, meet everyone's needs or fulfill everyone's desires. It's your job to do what you do best, and do it for the people whose needs and problems are resolved through your best work. When you look at it that way, it's actually a relief not to have to be everything to everyone. You can just be the best you can be for the people who will appreciate it the most. Talk about fulfilling and satisfying work!

So how do you do this?

Last week's step in identifying your special skills, talents and gifts brought you part of the way to this type of resonant marketing. It helped you figure out what you do best. So now all you have to figure out is who your best work serves in the most successful way. This is called identifying your ideal client. It's honing in on the type of person who will resonate with the results you produce when you do your best work. These are the people who will become your best clients and biggest fans who rave about you to others because you give them what they need or desire so well that they can hardly believe their luck in finding you.

Once you know who you serve with your best work, you combine it with your special gifts, talents and skills to craft marketing materials that make it easy for your ideal client to recognize and resonate with how your services solve their problems, meets their needs, or fulfills their self-care desires.

Your Transformational Homework this week:

• Honestly assess your current marketing materials and the way you describe your practice to others. Have a good friend go over these with you to let you know, gently, if what you're saying hones in on a specific group of people or tries to be a panacea to everyone.
• Take some time to do a walk through of a session with you. Identify what you do that's special and what results you produce that are exceptional.
• With a picture of your best work in mind, spend some time envisioning the type of person who will benefit the most from it. Really jot down some specifics that include what she needs & how she feels when she chooses a session with you, what she values, how your exceptional results resonate for her, and how she wants to feel when she leaves.
• Write up some marketing content that speaks to your ideal client directly, and then run it by one of your current clients who fits the profile.
• Get an honest opinion about whether your words speak to her from the heart or not and tweak until they do.

PS. If you find these steps valuable, and you're an emerging heart-centered entrepreneur looking for the keys to transform your business into an authentic, heart-centered, profitable business, there's a workshop for you on August 24th. If you'd like to know more about how to apply these steps to transform your own emerging business, join me at Learn the Six Steps to Success here in Beverly, MA.

Identify your Special, Gifts, Talents and Skills!

How do you answer when someone asks "what do you do?" Do you say something boring like "I'm a massage therapist" or "I'm a yoga teacher" or "I'm a practitioner"? If you answer that way, you're not alone. Many many holistic health and wellness professionals respond in conversation this way. It's a very easy and convenient way to label yourself.

But, it really doesn't leave room for you to shine as the superstar "stress buster", diva of "deep relaxation and peace of mind" or yogi of "flowing body and spirit", does it? It doesn't tell anyone what you really do with your clients.

Here's a secret that new practitioners don't always realize at first. Clients come to see you to spend time with you. I'll say it again - clients come to see you to spend time with you. They really do. They don't come for what you were trained to do in the consultation room or on the treatment table.

Oh sure, a potential client might decide tonight that she is going to try Reiki, so she Googles "Reiki" and emails the first practitioner that pops up in the search engine. Which might be you. The truth is, though, this is not how you are going to connect with most of your clients. And it's certainly not how you are going to keep your clients coming back.

I mean it. Clients will book with you again and again because they like to spend time with you. They like how they feel when they are with you. They enjoy the subtle, magical, superstar healing or growth you facilitate for them when they are there. There are thousands, perhaps millions of holistic health and wellness professionals. But it's you they want. They really do. They want you.

So what you have to do is figure out how to make it easy for your clients and potential clients to know who you really are and what it's like to spend time with you. When you are able to answer the question "What do you do?" with an authentic, heart-centered answer about the real you, the people you're talking with will know right away if they (or someone they know) resonates with your message and wants to spend more time with you.

Let's use me as an example. When I answer the question "What do you do?" with "I mentor other practitioners", it's pretty dull, right? You might scratch your head and wonder what that means. I am nowhere close to perfect, and the truth is that this is sometimes the answer that comes out when I am networking or talking to potential clients.

However, I do try to remember to turn on the superstar and answer with something more like "What I do is help practitioners give birth to their dream of starting a business by finding their gifts, identifying who they are here to serve, and teaching them how to communicate in a resonating, heart-centered way that attracts clients."

Ooh, that sounds a lot snappier doesn't it? It catches your attention. If you have a dream in your heart of hearts about the life you really want to live and the difference you want to make in the world and in the lives of others but you're too scared, worried, or unsure about how to make it happen, your heart takes notice. You resonate with what I've said. You want to find out more.

It's time for you to figure out how your talents, skills and gifts translate into a sizzling answer to "What do you do?" and to start telling your clients and everyone you meet about it.

Your Transformational Homework this week:

Carve out some time alone with your iced tea and journal and answer the following questions to get some clarity about what you really do:

• What are my special gifts in working with clients?
• What stands out about how I work with clients?
• What are some adjectives that describe what it feels like in the consultation or treatment room?
• What emotional state are your clients in when they arrive? How has that changed by the time they leave?
• What compliments or feedback do your clients give you?

Ask a trusted client, colleague or friend about what they think your special kind of mojo is like?

Start answering "What do you do?" differently. Try out a variety of responses until you come across the one that sizzles.

PS. If you find these steps valuable, and you're an emerging heart-centered entrepreneur looking for the keys to transform your business into an authentic, heart-centered, profitable business, there's a workshop for you on August 24th. If you'd like to know more about how to apply these steps to transform your own emerging business, join me at Learn the Six Steps to Success here in Beverly, MA.