(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast. I'm Allison from Abundance Practice Building. I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping therapists build sustainable, joy-filled private practices, just like I've done for tens of thousands of therapists across the world. I'm excited to help you too. If you want to fill your practice with ideal clients, we have loads of free resources and paid support.
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Hi, Idina. Hello. What would be most helpful today? Everything. Awesome. So, I think right now the very first thing that's top of mind is like marketing strategies and figuring out which ones feel best for me. Like I went through the marketing fundamentals courses and, you know, all of that. I watched everything. So, I only have three strategies right now. I almost call it two and a half because like Psych Today, which is one of my using a directory, is like hit or miss, right?
And so, I'm worried I don't really have enough, so I have my website, really happy with where it's at right now. I've been doing networking, really throwing myself into that. For reference, I started my part-time practice in April, and then I went full-time mid-July, so I'm really new in this. Yeah, and you were able to go full -time, which is beautiful. Yeah, I just decided to go for it, and being in this is like really motivating also.
Good. Yeah. So, new to all of this, but really throwing myself into everything and trying to learn. So, yeah, I got my website down really recently, doing the marketing stuff with like when it comes to networking, just getting myself there as much as I feel comfortable. Uh-huh. And then I have my Psych Today profile, which, again, like I said, it's really kind of hit or miss. I haven't been getting much there. I'm pretty happy with my profile, but I'm in New York.
We have millions of therapists, it seems, so yeah. And I really am not comfortable with doing public speaking, and when I say not comfortable, I mean more than the average, not comfortable. Yeah, we can just take it right off the list then. Yeah. No pressure there. Good. Good. And don't love social media, like, yes, I scroll on social media, but I do not even post on my own page, my personal page. Not into it, not excited by it, don't really care about people seeing my life or whatever.
Uh-huh. So, I think I'm worried like three-ish strategies just isn't enough. I mean, I'm thinking I could add more directories. I would still count as one, because even if you're on five directories, online listings is still one heading. Yes. I mean, you've got the two most important down. The thing is like, how do people find your website if not through networking?
So for those two, it requires that your ideal client gets in touch with somebody who knows you in order for them to find you, which can be done. Like, I basically built my practice in Seattle that way, but that was also like in 2011. So things, there were fewer therapists doing private practice, there are new and different ways that work. So I think it sounds like you're very motivated.
So it's about finding the thing that like, first we'll start with like, you don't hate, and then we'll see if we can like hack away into actually liking it. Are you in the city? I'm in Long Island, so outside the city. And are you doing in-person or virtual? I'm doing virtual. Okay, great. So you've got all of New York, which is fantastic.
Yes. I was just talking with somebody yesterday about when people are doing their online listings, they're always like, well, what's the really rich area for me, right? Like for her, she's in California, so it's like Palo Alto, it's Monterey, it's all these like really fancy places, right?
And so for you, you certainly know, you know, Manhattan, you know, Brooklyn, but even for premium pay, if you can find a place that has fewer therapists listed where the median household income is at least 70 grand, then you'll probably be fine. And they're kind of underserved on the psychology today or online listing world because they don't have as many people vying for attention there. So as long as your niche is spoken about in those first couple sentences, then those people will find you.
So that's something to consider, instead of going for what looks like the low hanging fruit, but it's the same low hanging fruit everybody else is looking for. That's fair. Yeah, I considered, I think I put the zip code for a couple of the higher income areas near me in Long Island, but I might have put one zip code in the city. But yeah, I have a couple of specific neighborhoods in mind. So I'll take a look at how many therapists are listed in those areas.
And yes, like today is is a little confusing also, just because when I do a search with a specific zip code, very few therapists end up coming up even people in the area and then it just sort of is like, hey, click online, look for an online therapist, and then you get zillions of people trying to figure out that that's something I'll look into a little bit more. That's interesting. It's confusing to figure out what zip code to even put in just because of how the results are showing up.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So optimizing what you're doing, like you like your website. How is networking going? It sounds like you're going for it. Are you enjoying it? Yeah. I've had five networking meetings in the last couple of weeks. Nice. Pretty much all gone really well. I've left feeling really excited and I have five more scheduled in the next couple of weeks. So I love it. I love that.
And so it's finding like, since everybody seemed like a good fit, you weren't kind of like, when is this over, then making sure you're following up with them at kind of a regular pace, whether it's sending them a meme or a paper or just a, hey, how are you? Because our referral partners are like, basically like people that we marry before polyamorous and able to marry multiple people, I guess, polygamous too.
So we want to have these long-term relationships with them, not just the one night stand. And so it's being more communicative with them. If you enjoyed them, enjoy them, let them become friends, basically work to make them friends if they're people that you genuinely enjoy and you're like, oh, I could definitely send clients their way too.
Because we think about networking as kind of transactional when we just think about the word networking, but it really is, it's relationships, which we're great at. So that's a fair point. Yeah. It's a helpful reminder because I am looking at this, not just as transactional, but like, oh, I'm really enjoying talking to these people and it's exciting. What I struggle with is staying in touch with people just because I get so focused on whatever's happening in my life.
And so even in my personal life, I forget, oh, I haven't talked to this friend for three months. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I think a lot of it is then the mindset of like, this is business and friendship sort of mixed together. And I need to use that as some motivation to follow up with people. But I guess I don't want to be pushy and like check in with them too often or ask to like meet up too often or whatever. So that's something maybe I sort of have to think about a little bit more.
I don't know if you have any recommendations there of like what that like kind of natural cadence might be. Yeah. I mean, I think I would put it in your, in your calendar for at least a month. Okay. Follow up in a month. See how it feels. Or if you come across a meme or a paper or whatever, just shoot it their way when you see it. Cause especially if it's a timely meme, you don't want to be like, I saw this a month ago and thought of you, you know, and that counts. And then you can bump.
Like if you do that after seeing them like two weeks later, you send them a meme or whatever, you can bump your calendar where it's another month before you do it instead of two weeks out. So it doesn't have to be these big heavy, like let's get coffee again. It can be, but it is helpful to kind of stay top of mind, especially for people who are full. Have you been networking with anybody who's full yet? Nobody who's like full to the brink.
Nobody said like, Oh my gosh, I have an overflow of clients. I don't really know how to find those. Yeah. They're often the people who've been around a long time is kind of like a first hint. It doesn't, I mean, there are people who've had a practice for five years that's never gotten full, but if you think their presence is good online, they say something about like having been in private practice for a million years, or maybe they were like your friend's therapist back a few years ago.
And you recognize the name, that kind of thing. Going to networking events, probably like if public speaking isn't your thing, is networking events a horror show for you? I haven't been to one. I could see it going either way. I could see it being not my thing and I could see it being manageable. I don't love group things as it is. Let's scratch it. But if I went with a friend, maybe I'd feel a little bit more comfortable, but yeah, you don't have to force it though. You really don't.
It's a perfect networking event shows up. Right. Right. And what is your niche? So you actually helped me kind of narrow down how to say this more simply at the most recent group call, which is anxious, burned out people pleasers. Yes. Perfect. Okay. That's it. Yeah, that's right. Cause we talked about how like other people are gonna, like if they have space in their practice, they're going to take these clients on too, cause they know what to do with them.
So here's, here's what I'm thinking in terms of too many thoughts at once. They're fast today. Sometimes, right. Some days my thoughts are really fast and I'm like, hold on, wait, let me, let me catch you. Yeah. I can't think of any group networking that is like so specially positioned for your niche. Sure. So I would just skip it since it's not something you're on fire about anyway. I would consider SEO as a strategy, which is going to require blogging.
So we can talk about some shortcuts to blogging though, that might make it less tedious if it feels tedious. I don't know. What does blogging feel like for you when I say that? It's one of those like on the fence thing. So I did have it on my list as like a, I'll consider this, but as I was watching that, is it for me video in the party, I was thinking like, okay, no, I'm not excited about doing this every week. I, it does feel like this tedious thing, thing that is just going to weigh on me.
Because I can't just bang something out in an hour. Like I will dwell on it longer, a little bit longer to like, get my thoughts out the way I need them to get out. Okay. I want to see if we can hack this just as an option. Yes. Well, if you were to on Monday, let's say pick a topic or a, some sort of subject that you're going to write a blog about at the end of the week, and that way you can think about it. You can do a little like notes for yourself in your notes app.
But if you're thinking about the impact of we're coming up on the holidays, right? So you can do like the impact of people-pleasing on your Thanksgiving holiday, right? But you would call it something clever. You would call it something like so happy to go to your parents' house twice in the next two months, something like that. Or why you're, why you're not so happy to go, but so, and then you're thinking about it throughout the week.
Your clients are bringing up things related to it throughout the week. And then on Thursday or Friday or whatever, you have a writing block in there and you look at your notes. And if you work better, just like blathering on, blather on into like a Google doc with voice recognition and then edit it from there. If you do better writing, then write.
So just like play with what works best, but if you kind of have planned mulling it over time over the course of a week, then you will probably have far more to say. And then once you've edited it, you can take what you've got. You can go to Chad GPT and you can say, I'm a therapist writing a blog about how difficult it is to be a people-pleaser around the holidays.
Please make this blog 800 words matching the style and tone, because you'll probably end up, most of us have a Peter out period, but like mine's never 800 words. It's always like 500 words. It's always just shy of it. And chat GPT can add some things in there that are valuable. It's not just like filler stuff, but it's valuable. They sometimes get your tone wrong. Even when you ask them to get it right, you just edit.
We never want to just like put something in chat GPT and be like, all right, copy paste. It's always going to suck. The better your prompt, the less sucky it'll be. So I would try that, like just maybe write a couple. And if you're like, I hate this, then nevermind, we don't need to do that. And what platform is your website built on? At Squarespace. Okay, perfect. So that's great for SEO. If you wanted to go the SEO route, SEO is harder in New York than a lot of places.
So if you were interested in SEO, I would recommend hiring it out. And I think, I hope I talk about it in there, like the, well, the person who does the SEOing of the blog and the blogging or the SEO section is Jessica from Simplified SEO Consulting. They're the people I trust most. They're the people I see get results for my students. They've gotten results for me. I've been ripped off by three other SEO companies. So I like them, I trust them.
So if you decide to go that route, I'd recommend them. Yeah. And I love the idea for like the blogging stuff, like thinking about it throughout the week that feels so much more like how my brain actually works versus I'm going to sit down and try to write. So yeah, love this. Yeah. Also, I've heard that some companies that do SEO for therapists will not do it in New York at this point.
Oh no. In Long Island, some of those companies are like, we won't do it for the city, but Long Island will like kind of, it'll be like on a case by case basis. So maybe I'll look into that. Just very busy and I'm not at the point in my practice where that feels reasonable for me. I get that. Is that something that like would feel okay maybe to wait on a little bit or is it like, oh, well maybe do this investment so that I can build my practice better?
I mean, if it doesn't feel comfortable and it's going to extend you in a way that makes you anxious, then I wouldn't do it. I see therapists early on get desperate because nothing ever moves as fast as you want it to. Right. That's all of us. And I don't want you to end up spending money, even though it will yield a result. I don't want you to be stressed in the meantime when there are other cheaper or free things you could be doing.
So it might mean you get started on blogs and you do the SEO tutorial that they taught on how to do the blogs and you just do that on your own and see how it works. I don't know. Maybe you get the same results. Who knows? Well, it's worth playing around with. I appreciate that idea. Just to give myself options, basically, I'll take a look at it and figure it out from there. Yeah. Let's see. You've got, I'm thinking through like all the marketing fundamentals, little modules.
What were the other ones that are on your maybe list? Yeah. So the only maybe is like everything else was immediate. No, I'm being honest. There were SEO, blogging and videos. Video terrifying, but I was more open to it than some of the other ones. So put it on the maybes begrudgingly. Yeah. Yeah. And so doing what it talks about in that video where you take a video of yourself every day and you make yourself watch it and you're going to pick yourself apart.
You're going to be mean to yourself for like a short period of time. And that's, it's important. We're in therapy. We know it's important to keep doing it even though there's this period where it makes you feel really uncomfortable about yourself because you don't want to stop in the middle of the discomfort and just be stuck with it because you will essentially like exposure therapy your way out of that and just be like, all right, so, you know, my face is like this. No big deal.
My voice is like this. No big deal. And that just makes it, it's actually good for some self acceptance, bigger picture to, to be like, I never noticed this thing I hate about myself now. And now I don't care that much. It's fine. I can accept it. Yeah. That's great. And with all content, it's always about just making sure you're writing about what your ideal client actually cares about because that's where people get, they see other people posting things like five ways to reduce anxiety.
And like, yeah, your clients want to reduce anxiety, but that just sounds like something you'd see on HuffPost or something, you know, like it's not specific enough. Yeah. That's helpful. I have trouble, I guess, synthesizing what those common topics are. Like I know when I'm speaking to a client, oh my gosh, four clients have talked about this in the last week or two, but outside of a session, I'm like, what are the common themes? I have no idea.
So I think, I think maybe finding a way to maybe right after a session, if there was something that popped up in my mind, just writing it down, like, oh, that was an interesting thing about, or it's sort of a theme and some of my clients, I think maybe getting a little bit more focused in the moment, instead of trying to look back later on without intention will probably be the key here. Yeah. And that could be just a little notepad you have right by your therapy chair.
It could be your notes app, but I'm, I'm not somebody who can generate the idea and then write the thing at the same time. I have to have a list to choose from to see what do I feel like, because forcing myself to write or to do a video, it doesn't work. So keeping that kind of exhaustive list of things that you continue to add to just as sessions happen, as you see things in the media, as people in your life say things that you're like, are you kidding me?
The world is full of reminders of what your clients need. So it's just like writing it down in one easy to find place. Yeah, that's a great point. Okay. So going to have to push myself to do some of these things I don't really want to do, but we'll maybe get used to, or we'll maybe sort of figure out along the way and maybe it's harder in my head than it actually is. I'm doing a lot of stuff here that a year ago I would have been like, absolutely no, there's no way I'm doing that.
And it's feeling fine. So, you know, it's just one of those things. Also, we teach our clients in therapy, like, you know, sometimes it's worse, often it's worse in our head. So yeah, maybe I start with seeing how it feels to write a couple of blogs. And starting to do the video thing, which I can see myself putting off, it'll put it on my calendar to make it happen. Can we check in on the next group call about it? Will you raise your hand and let me know you did it? I cannot promise.
Okay. But I'm going to try because got a little bit of social anxiety, not going to lie. So even speaking up in a meeting, that's me challenging myself the last time speaking up in that call, I was like, I'm doing this, I'm scared, and I'm doing this. So it'll be me doubly challenging myself, but I'm going to put it on my list as a goal. Okay, awesome. Awesome. And I have to say, I hear this from people a lot about the group calls of like, I'm not somebody who speaks up in these things.
It's really scary for me. I can never tell. I would never have known that you were anxious when you spoke. So good masking, I guess. Great masking. Yeah. I've practiced so much speaking up and part of a big like consultation group, like network. And I've practiced so much speaking up and that me five years ago, my face would have been red, I would have been shaking. And so yeah, this is me like practicing less anxious, but still anxious. So it's good feedback. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Yeah. Acknowledgement there. Yeah. And the accountability as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I'll throw some accountability. But you're more than you want. I appreciate that. Okay. So, yeah, with the marketing strategies, then if I stay, I want to challenge myself to do more than just the three. If I stayed at the three, though, worst case scenario, I hated everything I tried or just like was not working. Does that feel like enough to build a practice or?
You need to go harder on networking, join a board or two and do something that has you frequently in front of the same people. And it would need to be a board that's related to your ideal clients. So it's easier for me because mine was so diagnostic, my niche. So like I was on an eating disorder treatment board or eating disorder education board.
So finding a board that has your people on it and they're friends with a lot of your people and they work with a lot of your people in different contexts. Yeah. But I would have to ramp it up to get where you wanted to be quickly. I mean, anything will work over time if you're consistent at a slower pace, for sure. But I want you to fill up at whatever pace you want to do. So just knowing like the harder you go with it, the faster you'll get results. Yeah, absolutely.
I think my niche feels a little bit tough when it comes to finding ways to connect, I guess, like being on a board somewhere. It's like mine feels so much more general than yours. I think, though, the beauty of yours is that it's people in all areas of life. Yeah. It's one of those niches that sounds really specific, but it doesn't have to be like a clinical board. It could be, I don't know if you have kids, but I think about my daughter's about to go to an all girls middle school.
Like being on the board there could be really good for stressed out people pleasing women because it's probably full of a lot of those moms that school. I think there's probably a lot, especially being in such a big area. Long Island has so much going on. You're not in like a little small town somewhere. So okay, here's what I do. I would follow just your natural human interest and I would make a list of like 10 different nonprofits or different kinds of things that have boards.
It could be the animal shelter. It could be anything. Just like make a list and then evaluate, does my ideal client hang out here? Do they know other people on the board? Are they on the board themselves? Clearly you wouldn't do therapy with them, but they have friends, like attracts like. So just kind of think through with each of those, which is going to be the most likely to yield referrals ultimately. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to give that some thought.
And then ultimately being on a board also sounds not like something I would normally go for, but something I would be open to considering. So maybe I'll include that on my list of maybes. Yeah. Yeah. Once I identify what some of those places are, when you said animal shelter, I'm like, I don't know if my ideal client is hanging out there. I mean, they probably are. My clients love animals, but I don't know. I'm like, yes, I would love that. Love animals.
I want to spend all the time with animals and animal lovers and all that. So yeah, I guarantee there are some people leaders on that board or in that staff or, and they all have friends. So it's being really, you don't need to be a billboard for your business because like who you are and how you show up is enough of a billboard, but you do have to let people know what you do. So when people are like, so what do you do? Don't say, oh, I'm a therapist and leave it there.
Just say, I work with, you say it so quickly, what did you say again? It was so good. Anxious, burned out people pleasers. I work with anxious, burned out people, pleasers in therapy. Know any? Like, because it's like, it's at least, you know, it's most of the state probably, right? Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. A lot of us, a lot of us here for sure. Yeah. I feel like most people are just like anxious, vibrating a little higher than they want to be. Absolutely. All right.
There's a lot to think through here. Yeah. And this is important, right? I can go back and yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Cause my mind is like running right now. Yeah. All right. And you're in this position where you're wanting to do this thing you've not done before. It is entirely reachable. Your goal is it's going to happen. But you are going to have to continue to be uncomfortable to get there.
And it's either going to be the discomfort of I'm not getting the number of clients that I want, or it's going to be the discomfort of I am doing these harder things that are putting me in positions I've not been in before or positions I've been in before and haven't loved. And I can hopefully figure out a way to enjoy it or at least not hate it to get to my ultimate goal. So it's kind of like, choose your discomfort. I needed to hear that.
Yeah. Okay. Good. That is swimming around in my brain somewhere, but I needed that to be said directly. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. What a kick. And you're not alone in that. I mean, so many therapists that we work with, there's like the list of things they don't want to do as much longer than the list of things they do want to do, and they also really want their practice to work.
And so there's a finding the things that were initially, maybe even some things on the no list, who knows, not public speaking, if that's turned your stomach, but finding a way to make those other things work. Yeah. Down the line, I'm trying to keep myself open to things that I wouldn't have been down the line. I'll probably be even more open to things that I'm not now because I'm already pushing myself and further than I thought I would be. And you're not hating it. Right.
The networking is going great. And maybe, who knows? Maybe I'll love blogging. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'll hate it. Maybe I'll love it. Maybe it'll be neutral. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. I love it. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Adina. I will see you in a couple of weeks in the group call. Thank you so much. Have a great week. You too. Bye. If you're ready for a much easier practice, Therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code ABUNDANT for two months free.
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