The Golden Circle answers the questions: Why, How and What.  Start with why.  Why did you start  your business? The answer to the question ‘Why’ is your driving motivation for action. Everything else emanates from this purpose.  Once you have answered the Why, then you can move to the How.  The Hows are the specific actions that are taken to realize your Why.  And finally, once you have identified the How, you can discover The What you are going to do to accomplish your Why and How. The Whats are the tangible ways in which you bring your Why to life.

Here are my answers to The Golden Circle for MyTherapistMatch.com:

Why did I start MyTherapistMatch.com?

I started MTM to help people get good therapy.

Finding a therapist who you can truly trust and become aligned with is a critical factor in determining the outcome of therapy.  In other words, the quality of the relationship between you and your therapist will determine the quality of the therapy.  The better the relationship (trust/rapport/alignment/etc.) the better the therapy.

Before MTM, the only way to find a therapist online was through a therapist directory where you search for a therapist based only on zip code. By using this method, there is no way to know if you will easily connect with a therapist.  MTM matches clients and therapists based on 23 criteria, including personality match, communication style and issue of concern.  Our goal is to increase the probability that you will find a therapist that you will like, so that you start resolving your issues (instead of shopping for a therapist) and enjoy some good, effective therapy.

How are we accomplishing this?

• We use the power of technology and the Internet to help connect compatible individuals with therapists
• We use our understanding of personality type, conscious and unconscious communication and preferences to match compatible individuals and therapists
• We continually refine our approach, so that the matches we provide improve over time
• We collect and use feedback from our therapists and clients to help us refine our approach

What are we doing to accomplish our Why?

My business partner and I, Dr. Robert Dee McDonald, have devel0ped MyTherapistMatch.com, which includes a 58 question online survey that both clients and therapists are required to answer.  The survey elicits 23 criteria that we found are important in determining a good match between a client and therapist.  Once the survey is completed, clients are presented with up to 10 of their best matched therapist. Clients can contact the therapists that they like directly from the site.

As these emails present an opportunity for new business, therapists will eagerly reply.  However, based on reports from many therapists, it is difficult to get the prospective client to reply to the therapist’s reply email.

This webinar lays out the best practices for therapists on how to respond to prospective client’s emails, such that they increase the probability that they will get a response back.

Here is a link to the webinar.

Here’s a synopsis:

The top 5 scams online today:

• Auction Fraud – question you need to ask yourself: ‘Why is someone selling a $200 purse for $20?’
• Phishing Fraud – question you need to ask yourself: ‘If this matter is so important, why isn’t my bank calling me?’
• Nigerian 419 Letter – question you need to ask yourself: ‘Why does a Nigerian prince need MY help?’
• Postal/Forwarding Scam – question you need to ask yourself: ‘Why can’t these people send their own mail?’
• Congratulations, You’ve Won an iPod – question you need to ask yourself: ‘When did I enter into a contest to win a iPod?’

Here’s the presentation:

“There is no apparatus in place if somebody wants to find a good therapist,” she says. “In therapy, there aren’t any meet-and-greet events. It’s interesting because therapy is probably more important than anything in the world because you want to feel comfortable with somebody and you don’t want to waste $100 on an intake session.”

Unsatisfied with current methods of finding a therapist through a directory website, she came up with this speed-date idea to give therapist-seekers a chance to briefly meet with therapists see if there is a good ‘fit’.

Because fit between therapist and client is so important in the process of therapy, I think more and more of these types of compatibility based therapist / therapist-seeker solutions will evolve.  My favorite, of course, is MyTherapistMatch.com.

You can visit the site here: MyTherapistMatch.com.

Here’s a brief video on why I started MyTherapistMatch.com:

* There was a 210% jump in March on the term “unemployment”.
* The Largest realized volume increase for Unique Searches was seen for the term “Coupons”.

Please let me know what you think!

Corey

SEO Presentation for Convention and Visitor Bureaus

Topic to include are:

• SEO 101—an overview
• SEO strategies and tactics for convention & visitor bureaus
• SEO linking strategies and tactics
• SEO content strategies and tactics
• SEO and social media—how to leverage social networks to increase your visibility in the search engines
• SEO trends—improving position and traffic volume

Here is the conference brochure:

Western Association of Conventions and Visitors Bureaus