The Association of Ayurvedic Practitioners of North America (AAPNA) is working on their own standards, and they’re similar to NAMA’s, but not the same.

AAPNA’s guidelines are based on a model of training used by:

1. WHO (World Health Organization) Benchmarks for Training in Ayurveda
2. AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy), Government of India
3. AUCM (American University of Complementary Medicine), CA, USA
4. SCU (Southern California University of Health Sciences), CA, USA
5. KAA (Kerala Ayurveda Academy), WA, USA
6. NWA (New World Ayurveda), ME, USA
7. Middlesex University, London, UK

AAPNA is looking for feedback on this process, so please visit their site to learn more, and also leave your comments below.

Standards are going to be really important for Ayurveda, and ultimately, I believe that unity in this area will be important for a cohesive community, health freedom legislation efforts, and licensing in our profession.

AND…quite honestly, it probably won’t matter much until more practitioners are thriving with their businesses.

Fact: In the U.S., we graduate around 400 students from our Ayurvedic institutions each year.

Fact: About 10% (40 students) go on to do something with their practice…90% (360) students do nothing!

Fact: Of the 40 that go on to do something with their practice, most will continue to doing other work to actually pay the bills, and the very few who do their practice full time expect to make around $25K-$30K.

If you’d like to have a different experience and different results…

• If you’d like to start your practice and change it so that you have lots of committed happily paying clients right away,
• If you’d like to earn a GREAT income in your practice FROM THE BEGINNING,
• If you’d like to truly make a significant impact in your community,
• If you’d like to avoid the financial struggle and inner lack of confidence that comes from NOT being able to sustain yourself from your practice…

 …then there are things you’re going to need to change in your “inner game” and things you’re going to need to change in your “outer game.”

You’re going to need to understand, feel, and believe different things about your clients, your work, and yourself, AND you’re going to need to take new, clear, conscious actions that work together to get clients, and keep them committed and successfully making changes while paying you really well.

If you’re truly ready for that, ready to do the work you spent 1-3 years or more investing in, studying, developing passion for…and to get PAID really well to help people with what you know.

And If you’re truly ready and open to see things differently than you have, especially the stuff you’re pretty sure you “already know,” and challenge yourself to take some new actions and implement some new strategies (that have already been mapped out for you and successfully tested over and over and over again)…then you should stop waiting and get our program, coaching, and community support IMMEDIATELY.

We know just how much Ayurveda Practitioners struggle to understand the latest technology, and how to implement online strategies with the likes of Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. That’s why we are now going to be doing a screen-recording once a week from now on for all members of the Grow Your Ayurvedic Business Program.

But because we love all our members who aren’t on the program too, and because we know just how challenging it has been for people to set up Facebook Page for their business, Jacob & I wanted you to have this training for FREE!

If you are thinking about joining the Grow Your Ayurvedic Business Program, click here to find out more information and how you can get this, and many more trainings about how to thrive in your community as an Ayurveda Practitioner.

- Marc

There were some wonderful presentations at this year’s NAMA conference. Each one of these following topics that was covered represents a niche that could be developed into thriving Ayurvedic practice:

• Preparation for Conception, Dr. Yash Mannur – Shubham Ayurveda
• Lyme Disease and Vector Borne Illness, Dr. Margrit Mikulus – Living Natural
• Health for Children, Dr. Vivek Shanbhag – Gaya-Thri
• Metabolic Syndrome, Keesha Ewers and Gillian Ehrlich – Fern Life Center
• Peri-menopause and Menopause, Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz –momlogic
• Heart Disease, Dr. Robert Schneider – Maharishi College of Perfect Health
• Support with Dying, Robert Sachs – Diamond Way Ayurveda

Leave a comment below:

Do you have a niche focus in your practice?

What is it, how or why did you get into it, and how has having a niche helped you grow your business?

The standards identify the scope of practice and competencies appropriate for various levels of practice, and fall into three primary types of practitioner:

1. Ayurvedic Health Counselor
2. Ayurvedic Practitioner
3. Ayurvedic Doctor

…each category building on the previous one.

Future drafts of these recommendations will also include:

• Panchakarma Therapists
• Ayurveda Yoga Therapists
• Ayurvedic Pharmacists

As the committee shared,

“These standards are intended to serve both as a foundation for future certification and licensing of Ayurveda in the US, and to support education that produces competent and confident practitioners of Ayurveda.”

You can see a detailed outline of these categories HERE.

So, leave a comment below to let us know:

• Where do you place yourself currently?
• Would you like to develop your education further? And what’s your plan to do that?
• Does this inspire you? Concern you?

Let us know your thoughts and feelings, and share them with NAMA. The Standards  Committee is seeking input on this draft from practitioners, educators, students, deans and other professionals in the field of Ayurveda and health care.

That’s right, illegal…and, as Wynn Werner shared at the NAMA practitioner forum,

“There are leaders in government who believe that there should be nothing available to the public that is not regulated by a government agency. No products. No Services. Nothing.”

Fortunately, Health Freedom laws coming from the health care freedom movement have returned unlicensed health care disciplines back into the public domain…but it’s a “50-part” process.

You see, the practice of “health care” is regulated at the State level. In this map showing the progress and status of these laws in the United States you’ll notice that only 7 states (the green ones) have “free state access for exempted practitioners.”

So how can we help move more of these states to green and health freedom?

Mr. Werner, who played an active leadership role in the health freedom legislation of New Mexico, described the process like a chess game. You don’t need to collect thousands of signatures, but you do need a small team (as few as 2-3 leaders) that can commit time to the process of understanding the politics and building relationships to move your health freedom legislation forward.

If you truly enjoy strategy and developing relationships, and have the time and passion to commit to this very specific and impactful piece of politics, you can make a very important impact here.

The organization to connect with is the National Health Freedom Coalition where you can learn what’s happening in your State, what the needs are, and how you can get involved to help. Mr. Werner is also available for questions and guidance for this issue, and can be contacted at the Ayurvedic Institute.

Dr. Paul Dugliss gave a very well received talk on Ayurvedic counseling at the NAMA conference in Seattle this year, and New World Ayurveda has an Advanceed Skills Course coming up that I believe you’ll benefit from greatly.

In addition to business, sales, and marketing skills and mindset, coaching or counseling is another area that is SO important for helping your clients truly integrated all of the amazing recommendations you have for them…because the best recommendations don’t do anything if you and your clients can’t discover and overcome the “hidden” obstacles to implementing them in their lives.

Registration is closing this week, so you need to act quickly if you’re interested…and Paul said he’d include an additional private session for anyone on the Everyday Ayurveda list.

Click HERE and then click on the link for the “Practitioners Advanced Skills Course”…and HERE is a quick screen capture video to make sure you find it.



Do you ever wonder about the unique gift you have to give, and if you are giving it as fully as possible?



My good friend and colleague, Arjuna Ardagh, has spent the last many years interviewing some of the greatest, most fulfilled and successful people about what allows them to flourish.

Jack Canfield, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marianne Williamson, John Gray… 

From the outside you might think that their huge gifts are just luck, or the family they were born into, or the result of incredibly hard work and effort. 



While all these factors may play a part, Arjuna discovered something very different in his hundreds of interviews, specifically two crucial elements which appear in the lives of people making a huge contribution to the world. 

He has made this into an in-depth course which you can take at home.

It’s called Living Awakening. It guides you, in a systematic way, in how to discover unconditional fulfillment for yourself, and how to give it as a gift to the world.



Go watch this video and get your free 10-day mini course.

A few of the things you’ll get from this free mini course:



• What every person who is joyful and self-actualizing has in common.


• A direct experience of Radical Awakening (it’s the topic of the second video–a really profound experience that’s the core of this work)


• Why some people are thriving more than ever even in these “times of change” and what you can specifically do to have the same.
• 

The true foundation for real fulfillment in the world.

 
• What is the primary cause of unhappiness in relationship and the “awakened” solution to it.

 
• The cause of 85% of all illness, and how to heal it.

• What is “Space Sex”?
• The question that eclipses all other questions


.

I know you’re going to enjoy this. Go ahead now and register for the free 10 day mini course.

In Health and Joy,

Jacob

P.S. Arjuna and I have known each other for some years now, live in the same community, and sit in a men’s group together. It took me a while to get what exactly he’s been up to, but it’s sunk in for me overtime, especially hearing his incredible roster of close and super-influential friends (many of whom he interviewed for this program), and hearing over and over again from people who have been profoundly impacted by his books and projects. This course is probably the best introduction I can make for you, so I hope you find it valuable.

I’ve always appreciated John so much. He’s great at being clear and articulate and bridging modern understanding with ancient Ayurvedic wisdom.

We discussed his upcoming Colorado Cleanse (April 17th – 30th), and how valuable it is for becoming a “better digester” (a type of fitness most people who haven’t been introduced to Ayurveda don’t normally think about), and how the real gem in the process is the natural state of stillness and peace (sattva) that arises naturally through the cleanse.

I’m going to go for it this year (even though I’ll be traveling for the NAMA conference through the conference – it’s easy enough to do anywhere), and I wanted to invite you to join me for it.

I also want to support you to use this opportunity to lead a cleanse in your local community to generate some extra revenue for your practice, and bring in some new clients.

My Invitations for You…

–> 1st Invitation: Join me for the Colorado Cleanse!

Click HERE to get all of the details and register.

NOTE: REGISTRATION CLOSES APRIL 5TH!

–> 2nd Invitation: Make some money and grow your practice promoting the Colorado Cleanse!

Step 1) Sign up as a LifeSpa affiliate HERE. 

Step 2) Approval takes a day or two…once you’re approved, login and get your affiliate link to promote the cleanse. (Email me if you need any help with that and I’ll show you how.)

Step 3) Promote the cleanse to your email list and social network and you’ll get paid $45 for each person who joins you. I’d also recommend including a local support group that you lead during the cleanse to support everyone and build community, and then invite everyone to join an ongoing group or private program with you at the end of it.

Take Action!

Cleanses are very popular, especially in the Spring time, and this is one of the best of them! I think you’ll do really well if you follow this strategy, and you’ll be sure to follow through with your own Spring cleanse that will help you feel great

Results come to those who take ACTION, and this is starting soon (April 17th), so if you’re going to go for it you’ll want to get moving on this ASAP.

Post a comment below if you have any questions or additional ideas and strategies, and let us know how it goes for you!

What does it take to make a sustainable income with your Ayurveda or Yoga therapy business?

Answer:

Just like any business…enough clients or customers who pay you money.

You can have a lot of clients who pay you some money, or you can have some clients who pay you a lot of money, or some combination of both of those.

But…

…Before you get clients, you get prospects (or prospective clients, or leads) who then have to BECOME clients.

A business that has these two essentials can generate a sustainable income, or perhaps a fortune:

Essential #1: A steady flow of prospects

Essential #2: A system to transform prospects into clients who pay them money

Today, the easiest way to add and store the contact information for our prospects is an email list. An email list that is regularly adding new subscribers satisfies “Essential #1,” a steady flow of prospects.

***How to Build Your Email List***

The easiest way to accomplish this is to make it EASY and DESIRABLE for people to join your list by giving them something valuable for free when they give you their name and email and join your list.

This is called an “opt-in offer,” and it can be a central feature on your website OR it can stand alone as its own landing page.

Examples include a free report, an interview, an article, a video, or even a product that they receive in the mail. Whatever it is, you need to communicate why it will help your prospect solve their main health challenge(s). The more concrete, specific, emotional, and results-oriented, the better.

***How to Turn Prospects Into Clients***

A targeted email list is the most important asset you can build in your business, because IF you know how to use it, you can always generate more clients whenever you want to…

…and here’s how I recommend you use it:

1)      Invite your prospects to attend a free event (live or over the phone/internet) that addresses the main health challenge(s) as your opt-in offer.

2)      At the end of your talk, offer them a free session as the next step to actually implementing what they’ve just learned.

3)      Have the “Sales Sadhana” conversation from the Grow Your Ayurvedic Business program with them to build the value of working with you, and uncover the costs of NOT working with you.

4)      Enroll them in committed program of health care with you (for 3, 6, or 12 months at a time).

Simple enough?