A note from Kathleen:
I'm so happy to share the following excerpt from Andrea Adler's book, Creating an Abundant Practice. When I was first starting out professionally as an Animal Reiki Practitioner, I took one of Andrea's workshops and found this book (and the workshop!) to be so helpful in forming the core ideas of my business. It's so important to have
clarity and a vision from your heart as you step forward with your Animal Reiki business, in addition to smart business strategies, and I recommend Andrea's book as a great melding of the practical and the spiritual aspects of business.

THE SOUND BITE
An excerpt from the book Creating an Abundant Practice, by Andrea Adler. To order and for more information, go to: www.HolisticPR.com

Believe it or not, the first ten seconds of your in-person self-introduction tells more about you than you could ever imagine. In those first few seconds, the person you are talking to hears the sound of your voice, the tone of your voice. They see, and even feel your body language. They see how you hold yourself, how secure you are. They see if and how you make eye contact. They get a sense of whether or not they can trust you or if they feel comfortable in your presence.

Isn’t this true for you? When someone walks into a room, do you not automatically form an opinion about them? When someone walks into your office or calls you on the telephone for the first time, don’t you make spontaneous conclusions? Trust me, you do; we all do, and usually within the first ten seconds. Hundreds of books have been written about “the first impression,” “the first glance,” “the first sentence.” Knowing this to be true, I tried a little experiment with a few audience members at a workshop I led in New York City.

The audience was filled with a diverse crowd of practitioners. I asked if five men and five women would please volunteer for a game. Ten practitioners raised their hands and came to the front of the room. I told them: “Let’s pretend we are at a networking brunch. I’m going to come up to each one of you and introduce myself and then you are to
introduce yourself to me.”

I went up to the first person and said, “Hi, my name is Andrea Adler. I’m a PR/marketing consultant specializing in the holistic industry. I offer private consultations, representation, and workshops and have recently written a book called Creating an Abundant Practice: A Spiritual and Practical Guide for Holistic Practitioners and Healing Centers. What do you do?”

After the practitioners introduced himself or herself, the audience was stunned to see that only one out of ten people had actually articulated in less than four sentences what he or she did for a living. Three out of the ten practitioners rambled on and on without
being definitive, others stumbled and tried to remember what it was they’d written on their brochure. One man pulled out his card and read it out loud. A woman in her forties stated enthusiastically, “I’m a massage therapist. I work on people’s bodies,” which was a truthful statement but not very informative or imaginative.

After seeing this, I developed a way in which practitioners can move out of their mental constructs about who they are and how they present themselves. I now spend an hour to an hour-and-a-half introducing improvisational theater exercises into my workshops.
Through these games, practitioners learn to act and react from a place of strength and confidence. The games become a catalyst for letting go of outdated habits, guards, and inhibitions as they explore new ways to present themselves. As a result, participants become more agile and flexible. They begin to trust instinctively how to articulate who they are, and their sound bite comes to them without struggle.

Practitioners are not the only professionals who have difficulty explaining to others what they do. Lawyers, artists, manufacturers, designers, businessmen, all experience this shortcoming - and most of them have no idea that their presentation, or lack thereof, can make or break a relationship, block people from coming to their door, obstruct the potential of a flourishing business, set limits on the good that they can offer others.

I cannot emphasize enough the significance of having these words, your sound bite, be compelling and powerful, memorized and flowing effortlessly from your lips.

The sound bite conveys to people the essence of what you do. It consists of two to four lines that describe in detail who you are and what your specific modality is. The sound bite is a teaser. It whets your hearers’ appetites. Attract them, get their attention, and they’ll want to learn more. If your words are effective, the listener will be so intrigued by what you say that he or she will want to set up an appointment and try out this method you have spoken so fascinatingly about.

Professionals who are truly successful know how necessary it is to have this aspect of their presentation down pat. They do not waver in their ability to articulate who they are and what they can do for you. They get right to the point and don’t waste your time.

Because there will always be diverse audiences you will be speaking to, it would be useful for you to have two or three variations on the tip of your tongue:

• For the person who has never heard of your technique before;
  
  
• For the person who is a practitioner in another field and has a little knowledge of your technique;
  
  
• For the peer who has a lot of knowledge, but needs to understand how you are unique.

Cliff Shulman uses the following sound bites when he is speaking to people about the Trager technique. This is how he varies the information:

If he is talking to a person who has never heard of Trager before, he will say:

Trager is a type of bodywork that relieves deep-seated physical restrictions and pain. By using a combination of gentle touch and rhythmic movements, it increases mobility and reduces stress.

If he is talking to another therapist, he will say:

Trager is a type of bodywork and movement reeducation that relieves deep-seated physical restrictions and pain. It increases mobility and reduces stress through a combination of gentle touch, rhythmic movement and awareness. Developed by Dr. Milton Trager, a doctor of physical medicine and rehab, it's been effective in helping people with a variety of conditions, both musculoskeletal and neurological.

If he is talking to a doctor, he will say:

Trager is a form of movement reeducation developed by Dr. Milton Trager that involves both passive and active motion to facilitate the release of deep-seated restrictions. It creates change through engaging the sensory-motor feedback loops and is extremely helpful in relieving muscle guarding, pain, and rigidity in patients due to musculoskeletal pain as well as to certain neurological disorders.

If they want more information, he’ll add:

The practitioner employs a variety of rhythmic oscillations that are profoundly relaxing to the nervous system while guiding the individual through range of motion and movements such as rocking, swinging, shaking or tractioning.

This is an exercise I use in my workshops. You may want to try it
for coming up with your sound bites:

1. Close your eyes and contemplate what it is you want to convey.
   
   
2. Try to create a sensory impression. Find words that conjure up images and create a picture in the listener’s mind. Play with words that evoke excitement and delight, interest and intrigue.
   
   
3. When you are ready, write down a few sentences. Keep coming up with different phrases until you are satisfied with two or three of them.
   
   
4. Speak into a tape recorder and listen to how these words sound to you. Keep exploring diverse ways of interpreting who you are.
   
   
5. When you have come up with a few options, go out and test-market them. Repeat them to friends and ask them which ones they like the best. Try them on people you don’t know.

Don’t give up. There’s a quality that you’re looking for that can be shared with people which reveals your enthusiasm. These words will come to you in time, I promise.

Take note of how friends and strangers react to your sound bite. Did they look confused, or did they get it right away? Did they want or need more information? Did they look interested and want more information, or did they look confused and need more information? All these reactions will take you closer to finding the phrasing that is
perfect for you.

By having your sound bite firmly committed to memory and in the forefront of your brain, you will never have to experience the embarrassment of wavering or stumbling as you describe to potential clients or to the media who you are and what your particular practice is about.

Use the space below to write down your sample sound bites:

To a person who has never heard of your method:
_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

To another practitioner:
_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

To a peer:
_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Besides having your sound bite memorized and ready for your delivery, don’t forget to smile. When you genuinely smile, you radiate friendliness and interest in others. Your smile conveys a feeling of warmth and openness, and inspires confidence. So, stand with confidence, speak with confidence, and smile with confidence.

About the Author:  Andrea Adler is an international speaker and workshop  presenter. She is the founder of HolisticPR.com and the author of  "Creating an Abundant Practice and The Science of Spiritual Marketing: Initiation into Magnetism". Andrea has been a marketing and PR  consultant for over 30 years focusing her gifts on the cultural creative, entrepreneurs, small business owners and the holistic/therapeutic community.