But what about our business relationships? How can we make sure those our strong, so that we can build strong practices, and help as many people as we can.

In this issue of Imago World Harville and Helen share their experience, long before the publication of “Getting the Love You Want”. We hear from Maureen Brine, who signed up on the first pilot of Imago’s practice builder, and from the Successful Professionals group, who are helping us design an ongoing program of services to support our Imago community. In addition, Maryrita Wieners takes us inside MAIT, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Imago Therapists. And finally, Maggie Vlazny shares some of her experience of web marketing.

We will also take a little look at what marketing and Imago have in common, and how we can put the two together to fulfill our mission, and transform the world, one relationship at a time.

Tim Atkinson
Executive Director

I grew up fascinated by the linking of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance. How about linking Imago with marketing and practice building. One is all about relationships, and the other might seem to be about money and our mailboxes stuffed with junk. But as I thought about Imago and our new Practice Builder program, I began to realize that they had a great deal in common.

When I joined Imago I heard that many therapists liked Imago, simply because it works! They had found that other therapeutic approaches were less successful. Some very special skills and approaches are needed in order to work successfully with couples. Couples can grow closer through attending a workshop, but they can often achieve far more through working on their relationship with an Imago therapist or relationship coach.

Building your practice can also require a special set of skills and some ongoing support. Couples imagine that relationships skills just come naturally. Likewise many of us don’t immediately recognize how much skill is required for successful marketing or how valuable it can be.

Imago is so much about good, strong, and open relationships, that it’s often tempting to not want to associate it too much with marketing. Isn’t marketing all about money, junk mail, unwanted phone calls, and manipulation? We want to be relationships people, not annoying people!

But it’s easy to miss that good marketing is all about relationships, too. The Successful Professionals program teaches a set of relationship tools, about connecting with referral sources, with groups in the community, and with people as they search the web. It’s all relationships, and like Imago, one of the key steps is often to put ourselves inside the head of potential clients.

We’re putting programs together now with our chosen partners, “Successful Professionals” because we believe they have the skills and understanding we need for members to grow their business. Their presentation at the Toronto Conference was well received, and many people joined their ongoing tele-class sessions. David McCann said simply “It’s a paradigm shift”, as he talked with enthusiasm about this work on a recent Workshop presenter’s collaborative call.

Our plans include another workshop on practice building at the Conference in October, in addition to a more formal roll-out of some new telephone coaching classes, and we are working on making them as affordable as we can.

If you support our mission, you may have a vision of a world in which most couples enjoy wonderful relationships, deepened through mirroring, validation, empathy, and the healing of childhood wounds. But to achieve this, it’s important to be able to reach out to encourage people to learn with us. Marketing and practice building are therefore an integral part of our Imago work together.

While the marketing story of Imago through mass media, especially the Oprah Show, is well known, the marketing process before Oprah is not. It’s a local story, centered mainly on Dallas, where Imago began, and it might be relevant to local workshop marketing. The situation was this. For the five years before we married and moved to NY in 1982, before Getting and before Oprah, the Dallas workshop practice included a monthly 20-30 couple workshop, 30 couple clients and a monthly training program in Imago. Essentially, the marketing philosophy we developed was to (1) Show up; (2) Pay attention, and; (3) Follow through.

(1) To show up means becoming visible in your community. I gave free speeches wherever invited and always distributed brochures and an annual schedule of workshops, none of which were ever cancelled no matter how small. This helped couples plan when they wanted to come and they could count on the workshop occurring.

(2) To pay attention means noticing your options and opportunities. I responded to every opportunity for media interviews—nothing was too small—and used all public speeches as an opportunity to assemble a mailing list of potential workshop attendees.

(3) To follow through means to consistently remind people about your work. Someone in marketing said: don’t let them forget you. I mailed a letter and brochure to every couple on the mailing list quarterly. I invited therapists and clergypersons to attend free so they could check it out. I assured therapists I would return all their clients to them. I also asked workshop attendees for referrals, and always sent a thank you letter immediately to any couple who came and to any referral source.

IRI's mission is directly linked to the spiritual, psychological, and financial well-being of its members. We believe if our membership is made up of financially successful Imago Therapists, this will directly support our collective ability to grow spiritually and psychologically.  An IRI community of strong and collaborative therapists will attract new members who are seeking what the current members have achieved.  With that important mission in mind, the Imago Practice Builder Program was created to support the realization of this vision of holistic well-being and overall success.

In order for you, our members, to have the tools and techniques to develop a financially successful business, IRI is providing access to proven strategies and tactics in the domains of time management/productivity, client development and marketing, staffing, and cash flow.  IRI is committed to delivering this knowledge in ways that are congruent with Imago values and core principles, making sure that all points of view are validated and heard with empathy.

Business development training and coaching (delivered via customized manuals, tele-classes, small group telephone coaching, and online resources) is effective when there are two factors present. First, you must have a willingness to learn; and second, there is a gap between where you are now and where you would like to be. Ongoing commitment, motivation, accountability, and support need to be present as well as the “right knowledge”.

The Imago Practice Builder Workshop will give you a foundation, providing the support, motivation, and accountability you will need to ensure your well being and success. At the October Atlanta conference you will have an opportunity to attend the Practice Builder Workshop. As an attendee of the Imago Practice Builder Workshop you will learn how to …

• Implement better and smarter actions in the business aspects of your practice.
• Have more control and less stress in your work life.
• Realize the vision you had of a private practice with ideal clients that financially supports you.

You actually can earn more with your ideal clients by working smarter - not harder or longer. The time is now to invest in your holistic success.

I have had the pleasure of being in the Faculty Pod of the Therapy Practice Builder. I would like to share my experience with you. Although I have some ability as a “natural marketer” (i.e. never miss an opportunity to talk about Imago) I am more of an intuitive entrepreneur than a planner, more of a connected knower who seizes the moment than a separate knower who has well laid out, concrete plans for growth for the next five years! I joined this group with the goal of wanting to change my practice by increasing the number of students in my trainings. I have gained so much more.

I have learned that “Energy really does follow attention”. In doing both my personal and business mission statements I have clearly stated goals for my practice and myself. As a result dreams are being realized. I feel as if I am now living my life by design rather than good fortune. I am clear about how much I want to earn and how to get there, how much time I want to spend teaching, doing workshops and working with couples, etc.

I have discovered much from Henry Harlow, who speaks a whole new marketing language to me like “if you can’t measure it… you can’t manage it”. Thanks to him, I now have new systems in place to track where my business comes from. I am moving towards becoming a more strategic entrepreneur making my business work for me…working smarter not harder.

I am very pleased with what I am learning as it is already paying off both financially and in the satisfaction I am feeling stepping into living my life on purpose with purpose! I highly recommend this course to all Imago therapist and Workshop Presenters.

Maureen Brine
Chair of Imago Relationships international

It was in the fall of 1994 when we gathered, eager and excited to explore ways to support ourselves professionally and personally as Imago therapists. And the Mid-Atlantic Association of Imago Therapists (MAIT) was born and has been alive and thriving ever since! What are we about as a regional Imago community? We seek to promote Imago in our mid-Atlantic area, to provide continuing education and networking opportunities for us as Imago therapists, and to provide programs that enrich and support our personal journeys in relationship. Over the years we have evolved to a vital organization of nearly a hundred members.

We meet bi-monthly and from the beginning we have had an educational program as part of every gathering. During each year we provide several educational events with master and clinical trainers. Our education committee plans the year’s program which may include an all-day training or a two hour workshop. We are quite proud and happy to be having our second three day training retreat with Hedy and Yumi Schleifer this month. Our continuing education events and trainings have been well attended and have enriched our community immeasurably. We also provide a forum for members to present information about how they integrate Imago processes to blend with special interests, for example parenting, sex therapy, childhood sexual trauma, addictions, etc.

In addition to our educational focus, we have a mentoring program where an established, seasoned Imago therapist meets with newly certified people after our bi-monthly meetings. We also help to form or get connected to peer supervision groups.

Four years ago we polled our membership about what programs they would want to pursue with the goal of developing a long term plan for the organization. Many of those goals are similar to the mission of IRI. As part of this plan we are launching Sunday afternoons of Imago basics for couples who have participated in GTLYW workshops or in Imago couples therapy. Continuing to support our couples is another way our regional programs support us professionally because our work with couples continues and grows.

We have a well-organized and dedicated Board who help carry out our regional programs. As a region we have always seen the value of having part-time administrative support and have been willing to pay higher dues to ensure that we have this type of support to assist our professional growth.

We often say we come to the meetings mainly so that we can connect with one another. We begin with coffee, tea, bagels and time to talk and reconnect before we move to the business and educative parts of our meetings. In the summer we have a fun day, just to have time to relax and be together. Probably the most important aspect of MAIT’s support for our professional practice comes through being part of this community.

Maryrita Wieners

It is hard for me to fathom that any of us could not use more cash clients, and also hard to fathom that any of us wouldn't want to get the word out to potential clients and our professional peers about this wonderful theory and method we've been blessed to learn....
 
I am self taught about internet marketing, but I’ve had quite a bit of success with it. Back in the late 80’s, before my master’s degree, I was the first realtor (of all the warm and fuzzy occupations!) to have a website. My present therapy site, www.therapyct.com receives 1,000-1,500 hits per month, which is substantial. I would say that about 90% of my referrals come from the net.
 
An important thing I know about internet marketing is the importance of receiving a high rank from search engines such as Google. I think one of the factors influencing this rank (which puts one way up in the pages searched)  is the amount of incoming and outgoing links one has to sites of similar content. This is called reciprocal linking. This gives validity to the search engine. Even if no potential client ever sees your name on someone else's site, the search engines will pick upon it and you'll come up higher in a general search.

I say “I think” because many search engine optimization specialists have different viewpoints on this. I believe the problem is that “reciprocal linking” recently turned into a frenzy of websites with nothing at all in common exchanging links in order to increase their popularity. Since the search engines caught on (I think of the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain), that doesn’t fly anymore. So people fear they will be penalized by this practice.

I don’t think so. The new buzz word as I understand it is “link popularity”. That means that sites with similar content link up to yours because you have information on your site relevant to theirs.
The Wizard sees it as a vote of confidence and you are given a higher placement in Oz. (OK, so I’m getting a little carried away with the metaphor.) But you also need to put articles and substance into your site in order for your vote to really count.

All I know is that it works for me. If we all link together to our Imago colleagues, and work on making quality sites, we will be seen and heard.