I was in high school when I first experienced the SOI model. Of course that was 50 years ago, and since I am Mary Meeker’s daughter, my experience of SOI might have actually begun in utero!
At 30, I began shipping SOI materials at the SOI Institute in El Segundo. Oh how I long to go back in a time machine to relive just one day downstairs shipping SOI workbooks, having lunch with my mother and Bob Meeker, and talking about interesting profiles! Like my mother, I have seen tens of thousands of profiles, and helped so many understand their unique pattern of intelligence.
As a seasoned psychologist, I now enjoy testing some of the grandchildren of SOI clients we tested 35 years ago!
SOI Successful Business Model: Our ADD-SOI Center in Manhattan Beach is currently booked 7 days a week with two testings per day. There are two reasons for the success of my SOI Center. First, as a clinical psychologist, I can bill health insurance. Second, as part of the ADHD assessment, I use a set of SOI subtests (CMS, MSU/MSS auditory and visual, CFU, and EFU). With this subtesting, I can explain to parents of attentional disorder students the importance of understanding the broadband of intellectual abilities. This is so we can later give the full SOI test.
Because ADHD is a medical diagnosis, when I opened the ADD Center of Manhattan Beach, I opened up SUCCESS with SOI. I think of Gypsy Rose Lee “Ya gotta have a gimmick.”
I think having a marketing strategy or an angle to bring in the public is increasingly essential – especially in our “ADD E-culture” where children expect exciting change every second (ADD stands for “Adrenaline Driven Disorder”).
SOI is bedrock, as we all know! Results are exciting but getting clients in the door is difficult. I also think about what Temple Grandin advises autistic kids about their future: “Make your career fit whatever your fixation is!”
So, think about your marketing niche and your unique, exciting lead card, and play it! SOI will make it work!
written by: Valerie Maxwell, Ph.D., Psychologist
