Hello Friends,

I’ve got some exciting news to share!

Most of you have been following the blogs of our Research Analyst and Resident Acupuncturist, Kimberly Thompson.

Her light, conversational writing style is fun to read and always informative. Well guess what? It seems we’re not the only ones who think so!

Acupuncture Today - the Magazine invited Kimberly to be a regular columnist!

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If, after reading the title of this post, you immediately said “Pepper!” you’re probably pretty normal, even if pepper isn’t technically the opposite of salt. (No, I’m not sure what would be either.) The point is, salt and pepper go together. They’re a pair.

Matched pairs of opposites form a beautiful symmetry in Chinese Medicine. Everything has its opposite, ideally in perfect balance, and each member of the pair belongs with the other. In fact, in many cases, we could not recognize one without the other.

As an example, think about light. Its opposite is darkness, which is really just the absence of light. But we wouldn’t know how to recognize darkness if we never saw light. Similarly, wet and dry are opposites, but they are really just the presence or absence of water. And if we had never experienced water, we wouldn’t know we were dry. Opposites are important, even vital to all elements of life and learning. Without opposites, there is no growth or understanding. To put it simply, a fish doesn’t know he’s wet.

Back to Chinese Medicine. Here are a few you’ll recognize:

• Excess and Deficiency
• Damp and Dry
• Cold and Heat
• Blood and Qi
• Yin and Yang
• Shen and Ko
• Tonification and Sedation

By now, you’re probably thinking, “That’s all well and good, but pretty basic. What does this have to do with lasers?”

You know, I’m glad you asked, because I’ve been working on a new piece of technology. Call it a surprise. It was certainly surprising to me, and after months of work, I’m ready to let you in on it.

So I’m putting together a special blog post with all the details. I should have it posted by tomorrow. I just wanted to give you the heads up so you would be watching for it.

And meanwhile, remember to appreciate the beautiful symmetry of opposites that define our world.

Shopping on Black Friday?

Hello Friends,

I just got back yesterday from the Pacific Symposium in San Diego. If you haven’t been before, this is a tremendously good symposium and trade show for acupuncture, sponsored by Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM). I’ve been going every year for quite a few years now, and this year, like all others, was GREAT.

Of course, as a vendor, I mostly spend my time in the vendor area, with all the other booth dwellers. It’s great fun to meet all kinds of practitioners and talk about our products. Our booth is always one of the busiest at the show, as AcuGraph attracts a lot of attention.

This year, as I looked around at all the other vendors, I noticed something interesting. Nearly every vendor there sold what I would consider “Practice Supplies.” This means herbs and needles, mostly, with a few other items mixed in. Of course there were vendors selling various supplements, nutritional products, tools, etc., but again these are all items you either use or sell in the normal course of practice. You use them to treat patients.

What was missing?
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There’s a very good reason…Wait…You didn’t miss the email did you?

We sent a special email out on Monday morning…apologizing for the troubles we had last week! 

You see…last week we upgraded our web store to the latest and greatest version, because we always want to provide the best service possible…but our tech department can tell you that sure backfired!

The update caused all sorts of problems. Now you know why we’re so patient when you have computer troubles…we can TOTALLY RELATE! Our fine Technical Department has everything up and running smoothly now.

Our way of apologizing for any problems you may have experienced was to give you a special discount for all of this week!

10% off anything in the store until midnight
Sunday, Nov 11th! Save $200-$300 on your AcuGraph order!

You’ve still got a couple of days!! Just enter the following discount code: 10PERCENTOFF when you place your order online or give us a call at 208-846-8448!

Wow…I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we were in San Diego! We’re packing our bags this week and heading to California for the Pacific Symposium. We’re looking forward to some FABULOUS San Diego weather.

Hopefully, you are planning to attend the Pacific Symposium this year so we can get re-acquainted. It won’t be hard to find Adrian and me at the Catamaran Hotel, because we actually have TWO booths for you to enjoy this year—one for AcuGraph and the other for Auriculo 3D.

Have you read about us in Acupuncture Today recently? I just published a couple of articles you might want to review.

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You may have noticed that our store has had some problems over the past week. Some days it was kinda’ broken and other days it was completely broken!

We upgraded our web store to the latest and greatest version, because we always want to provide the best service possible. And boy did that backfire!

The update caused all sorts of problems that the vendor assured us we wouldn’t have. That seems to be the price of progress…you know…two steps forward and one step back!

As a result our Technical Department has literally been working through the night to fix the problems…and we’re pleased to say they’ve succeeded. (Knock on wood!)

We know how inconvenient it is to try and place an order…and the site just gives you an error! If this happened to you, we’re sorry!

Please accept our apologies. 

To make it up to you I’m offering a 10% discount on all of products for the next 7 days. 

That’s right, 10% off on ANYTHING in our store in the next seven days. This is very rare, so don’t miss it! (Cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. Cannot be applied to previous orders.)

Since the last 7 days were hit and miss…you’ve got another 7 days to save!

Use the following code when you place your order: 10PERCENTOFF

You can place your order online or simply give us a call at 208-846-8448!

Have a great week and if you’re going to PCOM this weekend in San Diego, come say Hi. Kimberly and I will be there with all of our new products!

Dr. Adrian Larsen
service@miridiatech.com
208-846-8448

I’ve got my passport ready and I’m heading to Canada next week, eh? Eastern Canada is having their first Asian Integrative Medicine Symposium in Toronto—and Miridia Technology is excited to be an exhibitor. We want to support the team over at Asian Integrative Medicine, Inc. They have put a lot of effort into creating this event and are planning to make this an annual symposium.  Click on the link above or the picture below for more information. You’ll be excited to see a lot of BIG presenters in the world of TCM—such as Peter Deadman, Robert Chu and Honora Wolf!

This is a great opportunity for any practitioners in southeastern Canada or the northeastern section of the United States to come out and support this event. If you’ve been watching us online and in Acupuncture Today–but haven’t seen the AcuGraph or Auriculo PC in person, this is your chance!

I’ll be doing demonstrations all weekend long. Come by and say hello. We’ll have some great special offers at our booth as well.

I’ve not yet been to Canada–but I’m really looking forward to it.

According to a website that I found, the term “eh” has multiple meanings….

Eh? = what did you say?
Eh? = what do you think?
EH? = something to say just to end a sentence.
Ehhhh!! = WOW!!
EH!? = what do you mean?
Eh?? = your joking!!!??
EH!! = Hello… (your off in the distance!!!)
Eh! = sure!!

So, I’ll ask the question again:

Do you want to come and visit me in Toronto at the AIM Symposium, Eh? (What do you say? What do you think?)

Talk to you soon! Make sure you watch for the pictures I’ll be posting on Facebook—LIVE from Toronto!

Kimberly Thompson, L.Ac.

kimberly@miridiatech.com

We all have images in our mind of what it’s like in “Corporate America.” We see TV shows depicting spacious board rooms, beautiful offices and majestic buildings. These exist to give us confidence that the company we’re doing business with is strong, stable and permanent. What this concept of “business” fails to do is show the human side of things…the REAL reason companies exist.

I was reminded of this last Monday in a company meeting. The CEO of our company, Dr. Adrian Larsen, walked into the meeting with a tray full of smoothies. That’s right, delicious, fruity smoothies! He let each of us take our pick and began to share his thoughts.
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Okay, so an acupuncturist and a patient are hanging out in an acupuncture clinic. The practitioner finishes up the treatment by putting radish seeds in the patient’s ear to extend the treatment. The patient says: How long should I leave the ear seeds in my ear? The practitioner answers:

Wait for it….

Typically, ear seeds are left in up to a week. But you know, they are radish seeds… So, IF you start growing RADISHES in your EARS, by all means take them out and give me a call!

Yep, that was my corny joke for the day. You’ll have to cut me a little slack.  I just can’t help myself! Right now, Auriculo 3D is the BIG BUZZ around the office. We are really EXCITED because soon we will be (or finally we are) releasing Auriculo 3D in multiple languages!

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There are some things in life that I am EXCELLENT at—but there are other things that are not my specialty. This relates to my personal life and also to my business.

My expertise is in Chinese medicine. Like you, I’ve spent lots of time developing my skills and talents as a TCM practitioner. That’s why patients are willing to PAY for my services, right?

Everyone has their area of expertise. When I need something printed for my business, I call my printer and graphics design person. When I need bookkeeping, I call my bookkeeper. Why? Because I HATE bookkeeping and I’m terrible at it. Why would I want to spend weeks trying to become an effective bookkeeper when I could call someone else who is already an expert?

Okay, are you ready for me to rant a little???? Here it comes…

I regularly follow several blogs and conversations about acupuncture on social networking sites. Recently, a few conversation strings have REALLY bothered me. The topics were primarily acupuncturists complaining about how they gained an education in acupuncture, but they were not prepared to run a business when they graduated. Some even quit practicing because they can’t make a living in acupuncture.

Frankly, this isn’t news, but it also isn’t necessary. What bothers me most is that these same failing practitioners are not willing to invest in tools or professional services that will provide the help they need.

To illustrate my point, let’s look at a real world example. Have you ever known a “wanna be” photographer–who buys a nice camera and suddenly thinks he is a pro?  Of course it takes a lot more than owning a nice camera to make someone a good photographer.

How about bookkeepers? Does owning QuickBooks make you a good bookkeeper? Nope. We all know this and I’m pretty sure I’m not offending anyone by saying it out loud. I’m also pretty sure that when a professional photographer has special needs, like questions about taxes, they’re likely not opening up TurboTax to hunt for the answer. When the local CPA needs professional photography shots for their wedding, they’re likely not asking some kid just because he or she has a decent camera.

So why is an Acupuncture Practice any different? Why is it that time after time acupuncturists “go it alone” as they try to create and build an acupuncture practice? It frustrates me to no end to hear these solo acupuncturists lecture other acupuncturists about how acupuncture is so unique that no other professional can possibly help in their practice.

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Are you Following along?

If you’ve been following my blogs, you know that my primary goal is to help each of you have a commercially successful practice. The other day, I helped a practitioner set up a health screening table at a grand opening sponsored by a local Chamber of Commerce. We anticipated 100-200 people, however, due to the pouring rain, flooded parking lot and the fact it was on a Thursday night, there were maybe 25 people! So how did it turn out? Approximately 10 people were screened, and 6 of those 10 setup appointments for the following week!

Such a tiny little event still had the potential to bring in 3-6 new patients! There was only one problem: the practitioner had not prepared to do the follow-up work needed to have a high “show” rate and turn those prospects into new patients. This was a bit of a wake-up call to me.

You see, I had assumed that the procedures were in place to deliver effective customer service, and all that was lacking was the ability to attract new people and schedule appointments!
So let’s take things from the beginning and cover all of the basics needed BEFORE you conduct a marketing event.

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This weekend, I was in Bloomington, Minnesota for the Great River Symposium at Northwestern Health Sciences University. At this event, there was a nice mixture of acupuncturists, chiropractors and students. Working the booth is always fun for me because I get to meet so many amazing practitioners. When I was a kid in school, I would get in trouble for talking too much. At events like this, I’m really in my element, because I am allowed to talk all day long with with amazing people about one of my favorite subjects: Acupuncture.

Our booth was the most popular gathering spot at the symposium. At first, practitioners stop by purely out of curiosity. Who wouldn’t? We have an AMAZING backdrop with the AcuGraph projected onto a big screen so that everyone can see, a huge crowd surrounding our table, and that intriguing beeping sound which projects from the little black box. Everyone wants to get in on the action.

I love to watch the excitement of the practitioners when they are being graphed. First, they want to know if the graph REALLY shows what they already know is happening in their body. Once they see the graph, they are completely SURPRISED that the computer actually matches the diagnosis that they would have given themselves. At this point, I have their complete attention. Watching the light bulb turn on is really fun.

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Last weekend, I was at an Acupuncture Symposium in Bloomington, Minnesota. It was a beautiful experience! I saw some beautiful scenery, met amazing people and tried some delicious local cuisine while enjoying the land of 10,000 lakes!

I also had the chance to talk with students, Acupuncturists, and Acupuncture-Certified Chiropractors that attended the Great River Symposium. I took this opportunity to get some feedback.

I asked one, simple question: “How does AcuGraph impact your practice?”

Here’s what I heard:

1. “The patients are always excited to see how their graph has changed.” Acupuncturist

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