(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.
Go to abundancepracticebuilding.com slash links. All right, on to the show. Some of y'all aren't sending HIPAA-compliant email, and it's a problem. Even if you're paying for a business Google Workspace account and have a signed BAA, your emails still aren't 100% compliant. That's where Powerbox comes in. You can connect Powerbox to your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email one time, and you're completely covered. No one has to sign into portals. It sends, and it shows up like any other email.
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That makes it less than $100 for your first year. Again, that's P-A-U-B-O-X .com. Use code ABUNDANT. So I've talked about therapy notes on here for years. I could talk about the features and the benefits in my sleep, but there are a couple of things I want you to know about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it into an ad script. First is that they actually care if you like their platform.
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With over 100,000 therapists using their platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful and they don't have to sacrifice your experience to stay there. You can try two months free at therapynotes .com with the coupon code ABUNDANT. Hi Allison. Hi Carrie, how you doing? Hi, good. I am a couple minutes late. Oh, it's really no problem at all. Yeah. What would be most helpful today? Um, so I think just determining a little bit about my niche and then, um, I'm not sure how these work.
If you can take a gander at my website while we're doing this, I don't know if that's. Typically we don't end up having a good amount of time for that. Okay. So let's talk through niche and then we can talk about messaging, which you can take to your website. Yeah, really niche and marketing is really, um, the long and short of it is I've been in practice since 2011. When I first started way back then, um, having a great website was kind of like a novel thing.
At the time I was married to a graphic designer, web designer who created this beautiful website for me and it was lovely and also knew about Google ads and was able to like get me. So I really, I did really pretty well in my first few years and then having kids and then divorce and then pandemic, everything just kind of changed as it did for everybody. So in the last couple of years I've been sort of, um, trying to kind of essentially rebrand myself and a remark at myself.
I had really built myself a client base on client, uh, not a couple's work and that was great, but I would just want to do something different now. And so the niche that I, I, well, I think it's a niche. First of all is the first question. What my website is geared towards is basically overwhelmed moms.
Um, moms who are struggling with kind of the mental and emotional load and are kind of juggling all of these different roles in their lives and need to find a way to, you know, practice establishing, maintaining better boundaries. Um, you know, improving the relationships in their, in their lives, that sort of thing. Yeah. Love it. Is that a niche? Yeah. I mean, I think the messaging of that niche is there's so much daily lived experience in being an overwhelmed mom, right?
You know it, I know it, every mom out there knows it. There are varying degrees of overwhelm depending on how involved the partners are or what kind of support you have. Are you a working mom? Are you, you know, like, are you a work at home mom? Are you, you know, there's just so many different things. So it's getting clear on that exact ideal client and what maybe she's got a supportive partner, but we are in this soup where women do everything in the house.
And so maybe if it's a male partner, like he'd be willing to pitch in and help. It's just not something that they've discussed. So if that's your ideal client, that's going to be different messaging than a single mom who is really juggling basically all of it except for every other weekend. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Okay. And I guess that part, I just haven't totally figured out yet because I don't, and I can, I think anticipate when the answer is good.
I don't want to like narrow in too much and like exclude other people. But I think the lesson for that for me is since I've launched my website, strangely, the highest percentage of clients I've received are men who are in a totally different situation, which I don't mind working with.
I mean, I, you know, I think that's fine, but it's just kind of interesting, but I, so, so I'm, I'm sort of not sure how specific I should get in, in, in the kind of speaking to the ideal client I've already, you know, launched the website, but I am in the process of potentially redoing a couple things on it and launching a Google ad campaign in January. Mm-hmm. So first of all, I'm curious, how are these men finding you? Those were referrals primarily.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But a couple of them did find me via my website and one of them is, it's funny cause he called and said, I really liked your website. I liked the messaging. I don't know if you work with men, but I'm going through a divorce and I have daughters because part of my website too speaks to like the mother daughter relationship. Mm-hmm.
And he was taught in, he was really wanting to, is really wanting to kind of make sure he has a better relationship with his daughters as they go through this divorce. Love it. Yeah. So yeah, I'm thinking about like, what is it like a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn't a square or vice versa.
I always get it mixed up, but you can speak to one very specific person within your website and it will bring in people who are similar to that, that person or people who have some values that they see on your website, like this guy. Okay. So you can risk being very specific and there are ways to do it. Like, let's say, let's say your ideal client does have a partner. You can say, if you have a partner comma there, blah, blah, blah. So that leaves it open for the single moms or the single dads.
Yeah. Right. There are ways to do it where it welcomes people in while still being very specific about who you speak to. Okay. Okay. So can I ask another question? Yeah. One of the things that I am trying to determine, and I'll try to be as brief as possible about this. So when I first hired a designer to do my, my new website, what I was originally thinking was I was going to basically have two audiences I was speaking to. One were the overwhelmed moms.
And then the second was essentially couple, you know, family therapy with moms and adult daughters. But I couldn't figure out, I just couldn't figure out kind of how to make them separate. There was so much bleed over between the copy that I couldn't figure out how to really do the family therapy one. And then I thought, well, maybe I should just, cause I just needed to get a new website up. Cause mine was old and dusty and I was approaching the deadline.
I was like, I'm just going to go with this one for now and just gear it towards overwhelmed moms. But working on that relationship of women who have become mothers themselves and are realizing, oh, I've got some stuff to unpack from my family and have moms who are obviously still living in and willing to kind of look at that with them is something that's really interesting to me.
And I've done a little bit of, and I would like to do more of, but I just can't figure out how to like speak to that on my website without it sounding a lot like what I already have written for the overwhelmed moms. Is that making sense? It is. I think you could do it on a specialty page and it could just be called like mother daughter therapy, that page.
And you could say, um, you know, so many of the clients who come to me who are currently overwhelmed moms realize that there's work to be done on their relationship with their mom. And you can describe what that work often looks like, like what some of the messiness between them or how it might be affecting their current way of doing life. Like right. Right. Particularly if they had critical moms or moms with very high standards or however you want to phrase it. Right. Right.
Or moms who, yeah, worked all the time or whatever it was that is showing up for them. Yeah. Cause you can really speak to how we are parented is often how we start parenting. Um, cause that's the example we had. Yep. Yep. So when you see a specialty page, that's different than a separate services page. It could be a services page. Like I use this kind of interchangeably.
Okay. So you could have like services and under that you're going to have like individual therapy where you talk about the therapy you do, which is going to be like basically a repeat of everything you said. And then you could have mother daughter therapy. Okay. And so that's what I started with. My hesitation with that was I don't want to work with children. Right. So I don't want it to be like with teens and their moms. I don't want it to be that or little kids and their moms, you know?
So I'm trying to figure out how to, it just sounds so clunky to me, like adult daughters. I don't know. I'm not sure. Yeah. You could call it mother daughter therapy. And in your copy, you could talk about like the daughter in this has kids. Yeah. You can guide them and you can even say something at the bottom. Like if you're looking for therapy for you and your child, that is still an adolescent. Yeah. Here's somebody I recommend. Here are some resources.
Yeah. Okay. What is your opinion about breaking that out? I'm just curious in general what your opinion is on having more than one niche. And I mean, I've read and looked at a lot of your stuff on that, but also does this qualify as a niche? Yeah. I feel like the overlap of them is so strong. Okay. If the overlap wasn't strong, I wouldn't. I mean, that's why you were having trouble. This is the same copy. It is the same copy.
Yeah. So it's basically like you work with women who are overwhelmed with being mothers and you work with them and their mothers. Yeah. So to me, it's like, maybe it could be something that's just in that page. Like also if you're struggling, click on this link and then I can just do like a sort of a mini specialty page. I'm like, you can bring your mom in too. Would that work?
It could, it could, but I think that would feel more like if you're already in therapy with me on your own, you can bring your mom in versus new people who want to come with their moms. Right. Good point. So just doing that second page is okay. And that would be fine to do that to speak to that group. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Because it's ultimately the same exact ideal client. It's her plus her mom. Yeah. Can I just get your opinion on that? Like, does that sound like, I don't know.
I think I'm just like, I'm, and I don't know if this is like a therapy session where they, you know, there's just like doubt for me because I did, you know, I was solidly a couples therapist for so long and it's like, I knew what to say. I knew what to do. I knew how to speak to that audience. I'm like, is this a thing that's out there? It is. It's interesting because I'm working with somebody in limitless practice right now who is moving away from that niche.
So I'm like, Ooh, maybe I should link them so that you can get those referrals. She's been doing it as a coach though. So she's been doing it nationwide, but maybe there's some people in your state. She did it. She loved it for a really long time and is ready for a change. Oh yeah. I would love to be connected with her just to bounce ideas off. And yeah. Yeah. I'll ask her today. Yeah. If she's open to it, that would be wonderful.
And then the other thing is just generally what else do I need to do? So I'm I need clients like yesterday and I dragged my feet on this cause all the, you know, imposter syndrome and all that stuff. So what I'm planning to do is launch a Google ad campaign starting in January under the advisement of this marketing company that I hired to do that.
And they're just going to run it for me because for a long time, one of the reasons I'm in the position I'm in now is because I kept telling myself like, Oh, I should be able to do this myself, or I can figure this out myself because my ex-husband used to do it. I'm like, but that he had a career in that. That's what he did. You know? So anyway, I'm, I'm, you know, a day late, a double or short with this. And I, I kind of just need to get clients in the door right away.
Other than this, just generally, I mean, are there other online, I, you know, I'm on psychology today. I think that's the only one I'm on right now. Like what else can I, and should I be doing just generally to try and just get this out there? Are you networking? I need to be networking more. I need to be networking for sure. Yeah, for sure. I do. I guess I'm kind of curious, like if there are just like specific groups I should be trying to network with, or is it just other therapists?
I mean, I am in a big online Facebook group for my community here in the Twin Cities. And so, and I have contacts. I just have kind of, I think my personal life just kind of gotten away for a while and I sort of like shrank back a little bit. So yeah, I'm a little hesitant to get back into marketing or networking, but yeah, I know I need to be doing that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think about couples therapists. Yeah. Right.
Like you probably are already connected with a lot because you were a couples therapist. Yeah. Because some of those women are going to need their own therapist and they're hearing about those dynamics between mothers and daughters. Yeah. And for them to be able to be like, you know what? I have a colleague who specializes in this relationship. Yeah. It can be really powerful. Okay. Right.
I mean, and I do know a ton of couples therapists and I, you know, I mean, that's the bulk of my clients right now are referrals from other therapists. So I think I just need to be more intentional about that. I know that this is in your, all of your great materials, but can you just remind me, is there like, I know there's not like a perfect formula, but like about how many like contacts or hours should I be spending on that? I would send out at least five emails a week.
Most of them will go unanswered. That's okay. Okay. And aim for one or two lunches or coffees or zoom coffees per week. Okay. And that's for the introverted folks. If you're feeling extroverted one week, then I would send out double that I'd send out to 10 emails. Yeah. Yeah. And we've got a template for that in the what to say when course to make the email part easier. Okay. And these are new people each week, I assume, or you can do new or just reconnecting with people like that counts.
In fact, the relationships you've already formed are going to be the ones that are more likely to refer to you. So it's like really making sure if you're reaching out to new people, you are forming an actual relationship, not just like a one night stand version of networking. Yep. For sure.
And I do, I just, I mean, I have a lot of people just who I went to grad school with that are still in the area that I quite well, but I just kind of got fell out of touch, you know, it just kind of so, but it's okay. It's okay to just come up again and be like, yeah. Yeah, it's great. And I mean, after the years you've had, like the hits kept coming. That's a lot. I'm going to write a book called my menopause divorce. Because it was all in one year. That's a rough year. It was a big year.
2020 was a big year. So anyway, I'm okay. All right. So five to 10 emails a week. I can do that. I used to do fundraising. I can do cold call. Oh yeah. Totally. And this is easier because it's cold. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not actually asking for money from people. Okay. All right. Oh, blogging. How important is it? Number one. And two, how much content actually needs to be in it? And is it okay if it's, well, let me just get to the point. I'm a music lover. I really love music.
I just like, I'm always listening to music. I grew up in a musical family. And so I was like, you know, thinking about blogging, like the only thing that would actually be interesting to me is if I posted like a link to a song and then talked about how I thought the song I created. And I'm like, I'm not a musician. Like what is that? Is that completely crazy? Like that? Are your clients, music people, do they care? Cause our blogs really need like your eye.
And this is where you got to get specific about your client. We don't want to write a single word on our website or our blogs that our clients don't care about. So I would say blogging would be beneficial if you're going to use SEO as a strategy. Yeah. It's good for people getting to know you better, but I always think of blogging and SEO as being like a jelly sandwich is fine, but peanut butter and jelly is better. Right.
Okay. So keeping those two together and I would like, I would recommend SEO. Like you're in a, you're in an area that is not overdeveloped for SEO. You can still get a foot in, but you would need to hire. Yeah. I mean, it's not like the middle of nowhere would be, but I would hire it out if you're going to do it. And let's count, let's see, you've got online listings of website networking, Google AdWords, and then potentially SEO and blogging would be the other, would be the fifth one.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of the golden rule, right. As to have five. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was kind of going back and forth between SEO and I mean, my budget only kind of allowed for one firm and I know my ADHD brain, I'm like, I'm not going to do this unless like, yeah, I'm just not going to do it on my own. Um, so I went with the, with the Google ad. Do you think that's the right thing to start with? Cause I, it really depends.
I've never had luck with Google ads and I've hired it out three different companies, but it, you have had luck with it before. I have, but it was before people were using it a ton and I kind of not maxed out, but I mean, I was like probably spending 500 months on it, you know? So I would see how this goes. And do you have a commitment with this company? Like a certain number of months or I think it's three months. Yeah. I think it's three months. So I'd reassess it three months.
You should know within one month they should really have it locked in within the first month. Yeah. And if you're not seeing results from them, then I would consider investing in SEO. Are you able to share with the company that you, Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Simplified SEO consulting. Okay. And so in the party you'll see, she's the one who walks you through how to do a blog post in the SEO section of the marketing fundamentals course. And they're who I've trusted with my SEO.
I only hear good things about them from the people I refer to them, which is not the case for other companies I've used. Okay. And can I ask the companies that you use for Google ads that worked? It was years ago. Was it Revkey by any chance? No. Okay. Cause that's a company I hired, which someone else locally, but in what was a different niche had a good experience with them. Great. So it goes well, but I am a little nervous about it. You've had success with it before.
So like, let's leave space for like, this works in the past. Yeah. Hopefully work again. And if not, you'll pivot. That's what you do. Yep. Clearly I've been doing really well. Jury's still out, but I think it's okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. So I have my website up. It's not getting to enough people, but the people that it is getting to seem to be responding well to it.
So I think what I need to do is just kind of do what I was, what I was planning on doing, which this has been really helpful to just kind of confirm that for me. So all of that mother daughter page, get that up. And then in January, can I go on, on both of those campaigns? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And really do like network now is not a great time to network probably. Right. So network starting in January, maybe go ahead and make your list of who you want to network with.
Yeah. And even, yeah, I might just start with people who like, even in my building, cause there are a ton of therapists in here who I, you know, know and see in the hall, but like, yeah, maybe we could even get something on the calendar for after the new year. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. This has been so helpful. I'm glad it's just really good to just have this confirmation and, and encouragement. So thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. Can we update it in the party Facebook group?
I will for sure. Thanks. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. Make sure your email is actually HIPAA compliant with Powebox. Use code ABUNDANT to get Powebox for less than a hundred dollars your first year at P-A-U-B-O-X.com. If you're ready for a much easier practice, TherapyNotes is the way to go. Go to TherapyNotes.com and use the promo code ABUNDANT for two months free. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.