(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. Alright, on to the show. Some people 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. Hi, Lisa. How are you? Glad to see you. I'm very glad to see you. I am burned out. Okay. I know that you had responded. You saw that I had posted something in the Facebook room a couple of weeks ago. Let me start with the good news.
The good news is I started your program, what, three years ago and it's been amazing. It's really my combination of grit, good advice, you know, hard work and love. I've had a full practice. I've made for the past three years, $200 ,000 a year. I love it. Which given my anxiety level. Towards the end of 2024, it was a good sign when someone said to me, oh, I have to, I'm going to go to someone else. And it wasn't a great said, and I was happy.
I'm like, oh, I have crossed some sort of line where when someone leaves and I'm like happy and trusting and just really thinking again, 2025 is going to be my year, a better boundaries, you know, looking at my schedule, making it work for me a little bit better and I'm feeling good. And then because I lived in the Washington DC area, it has been bad.
It has been, I mean, I would say a quarter of my clients have either already been terminated or will, you know, reality check, no one, only one person has just quit outright. I'm trying to keep it in perspective and not preemptively say, oh, do you need a lower fee? I'm just going to wait. Look what I was wanting from today. So, okay, what have I done so far? I've reached back out to Simplified SEO to do like a one-off session.
And what I'm actually, because again, I don't have tons of money to spend on this. I'm going to work with their local SEO person because I moved my office about a year and a half ago and getting verified on Google, my business is driving there. You do the video. I don't know if you've done this or heard from people. I've heard from people that it's a bear. And they never, so anyways, I'm just going to pay them for six months to help boost my local SEO. I talked to Jennifer Rollin. She's local.
So she said that would be good. What I wanted to get a sense from you two thing. So the niche thing has been really interesting. So, you know, I'm still using the same website I set up for you. I can even share. And it's interesting. I do get people who fit my niche and I get people who don't, which is great actually, which is because I don't want everyone, but I do think it's got me some. I wonder if I should somehow tailor it.
Like when about Jennifer looked at my website and I said, you know, psychotherapy for high achieving people, pleasing for anxious people, pleasing perfectionists, something like that. And she wondered if I should make a switch to like burnout that someone might not identify as a perfectionist per se. And I was curious to think about like tweaks to make sure people are coming in also knowing I'm a little burned out myself, just what I'm dealing with. Just, I mean, my own anxiety.
I met with my financial person. I will be okay. I will be okay. But I don't have like tons of like, like I did three years ago. Like, yes, I'll write all the blog posts, but like knowing that I have to spend some energy and be curious for your thoughts. Yeah. So it's interesting. I'll give you kind of an anecdotal story. So we tried marketing pretty hard to burn out because so many therapists are burned out right now.
And so it's for our program Limitless Practice, which is for full people who are needing to make some changes. Some of them are having a slowdown right now, that, that kind of thing. We're going back and forth, trying different ways to market to see what brings us the most ideal clients. We got a lot of people signed up for inquiry calls, wanting to talk through whether or not it's a good fit when we talk about burnout, but we get very few people actually take action. They're burned out.
Exactly. It's like, where am I going to pull this extra energy and time from? So I would put that out there, especially given how burned out so many people in DC are right now. It's just like such an emotional, emotionally exhausting experience for anybody who works for the federal government and anyone who knows anyone and loves anyone who works for the federal government. I don't know if burnout is going to bring in people who are like, I need the help now. Yeah. Yes. That's such a good point.
Yeah. People flirting with burnout, maybe, in which case you might not want to use the word burnout because most of us don't acknowledge that we're burned out until we've hit the wall. Yeah. Yeah. Hands up. I'm there too. It's more like I'm in beach fly all the time. Right. If what you've been doing has been working for years, like your path of working with simplified SEO consulting, I think that's smart. Yeah. Just get my new office on.
I mean, considering you had mentioned group, my current space isn't fantastic for a group. I just clinically someday would love to run a group. I don't know. A lot of people are right now doing low fee groups for hired federal workers. I'm not sure that I'm there yet. I'm thinking about just, I don't get a lot of psychology today, kids. I use the person that you all who, it's been three years. You know the person I'm talking about. Yeah. Laura Long, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which one's great.
But I wonder, I do wonder with the niche right now, if some people, if it is a deterring some people, like, well, not really a perfectionist and I'm not really, if I should make it more about just general anxiety right now. Yeah. I mean, if perfectionism is not the thing that's bringing in the people that you're currently seeing, can I just delete that word? Yeah. Like high achieving, anxious, high achieving folks. There are plenty of us. Yes. And in DC, yes. Oh yeah.
DC is like literally built on anxious, high achieving people. I know. Okay. I'm hearing, and maybe this is more just like reaffirming. I don't need to take a hard laugh here. Like, you know, some of it is trusting. I mean, which I was really getting better at doing until all this happened. But I said, I'm also Googling and in a really anxious moment, laughing like other jobs, not just for the income. I did have a consult call with someone yesterday for supervision.
You know, I'm thinking about adding a page to my website about supervision, like sort of adjacent. I know you probably have like a training or a talk or something on that, but I'd be curious if you had thoughts on just if people really are hunkering down and not going out of that work or just not prioritizing therapy right now. I'd be curious about maybe outside the box. Yeah. I would challenge the premise that people are not prioritizing therapy right now. You've had one person, right?
If a quarter of yours have already been laid off or are likely to be laid off and only one person is left, then that means people are prioritizing. Okay. Okay. So this always comes back to anxiety management. Yeah. I mean, it is for most of us and that's, I mean, that's business for most business owners. Yeah. I know. I know. So you're in great company. I know. It really, it's just so ironic really towards the end of last year, I consciously said to myself, like, Lisa, you can chill.
It's going to be okay. And then this, this just feels so like a tsunami. Yeah. I think it feels scary all over, but particularly in areas like DC that are, there's so many federal jobs. It feels different for y'all. I mean, it really does feel. Yeah. That's what I mean, it's probably to other places. I keep saying, feels like we're first responders right now. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So you're having a really reasonable reaction.
Anxiety is a normal reaction to what you're experiencing. Yeah. Yeah. And everybody's probably coming in worse off than they came in mid last year. And the thing with me, because I do long-term work, I mean, really, many of the people I see now, I've been seeing, I would say 60% of the people I'm seeing now, I started seeing three years ago.
So, you know, maybe it's lesser frequency, but too, I don't pay attention to when the phone doesn't ring from colleagues like, oh, the phone hasn't run since inauguration, you know? Yeah. There's a slowdown. There is a slowdown, I would say in the last year, actually. Really? Yeah. And that's, I have lots of theories about it, but what we're seeing is big tech, because we know data-wise, more people are seeking therapy than ever before, way more than even COVID.
The increase in people seeking therapy is huge. But I think big tech's in there. I think there are a lot more of us in private practice. I think us practice builders have done our job too well. Like I have a lot of verde-seeking associates. Yeah. And so that's not a bad thing. It just means that our marketing has to be so much more intentional.
And it means that people from your cohort, who some people got full within three months, it's taking more like six for people now, which is still a really great period of time for starting a business from scratch, but feels really scary to put in that much work and not feel like the results are coming at a reasonable pace. So for you, that means doing the things that have worked before, it just needs to be more intentional.
You know, someone recommended like doing, I haven't written a blog post in two and a half years, but someone recommended doing a blog post sort of aimed towards federal workers who still have jobs, because that's also hard. Yeah. The survivor's guilt. Yeah, that's exactly. So doing, I know I should ask, Simplified SEO, but just doing a blog post alone without all the optimizing, does that do anything?
It helps people who have already found your site choose you or not choose you, but that's not going to be found on Google. I can do a DIY, you know, like I know the concepts, the tech around that. And actually, I thought, because I've had several calls, like people who have tried the better help, like at one point I wanted to market to refugees. Of these tech platforms. Yeah. Yeah. I think that there are more and more of those folks who are like, this was not what I was looking for.
And it's, I mean, it's the platform's fault. It's the therapists are doing their best job. You know, it's just that they're being, so many people are being forced on them. So. So, okay. Let's think about, you know, where I'm going to put my energy and maybe as I get into this local SEO, I'll get back into that SEO mindset of being Jennifer to Google is still her number one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I can do that. Yeah. Who'd have thought?
Well, probably we could, but yeah, it's just, it's intense. Yeah. I mean, I don't think anybody last year saw this coming, even after the election results. I don't think we saw this coming. No, I have three USA ID people. You knew there would be changes, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I'm not giving you a really helpful recording. It's good, but it really, I mean, it really is about staying the course. That's what I'm hearing.
It is. And I think, I think it's helpful for people listening or watching because they think we all will hit these moments in business where we're like, the thing I'm doing is not working. It's not working. I need to do something. Like I need to go off into left field. You know, like if you had decided, okay, I'm going to do an alternative stream of income. I'm going to create a course or something.
The amount of work you would have to put into that course and the amount of marketing you would have to do for that course. If you did even just a fraction of just the marketing part of that work, your practice would be back where you want it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, that's also good because somehow I intuit you and I might have similar personality. Maybe the fact I found you and that that's the thing like, oh no, I need to do something. What is, so I'm going to tinker.
Sometimes I just go in and put a comma in my psychology today. Like I do because I really don't get any, I just have this potential supervisee, but maybe just experiment. I'll keep the old text. Just said that's an easy, no cost way to see what I even thought about starting it saying something tongue in cheek. Like I know all these profiles look alike and that's overwhelming even just to grab people's attention. Yeah. Okay. But rather not to spend major either financial or emotional capital on.
No. Okay. You know what works for you. Yeah. Really well and solidly from clients, which is me. That's been the, that's the best. That's been great. Okay. I keep saying that one day I'll go back and see if I can help you be a coach. Okay. So low, low, this local SEO gap, I think. Okay. This is good. Okay. Yeah. A lot less work than anything else you were probably thinking of. I normally give people so much more work than they were hoping for and here we are, I'm giving you less.
Honestly, the blog posts, do you think that. I mean, if they're paired with SEO. Sure. Okay. Let me go back and see if I can figure out how to, and maybe while I'm working with them on the local available, I can pay a little extra and to get some blog posts optimized. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's just doing the blog posts on your own. People will have had to have already found your website to even find the blog post. Usually the purpose of the blog posts with SEO is for people to find your website.
Yes. Okay. Okay. So I'll look into that. I'll look into that, but maybe just give myself like an hour a week where I think about marketing. Yeah. Yeah. And to also keep reminding yourself, you're good. Financially you're, you're not in a different place. You lost one client. I know. Okay. Okay. Okay. It'll be fine. Okay. Thank you, Alison. Of course. Okay. Okay. See you on the interwebs and you take care with the hurricane and all that too. Okay. I appreciate it.
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.