Selling the Couch

I think often about legacy in providing STC as a resource for our field and being of service to our colleagues. The same desire for a lasting legacy drives me to connect with good people who are doing great things in the world, which is what this podcast is all about. Today’s conversation, with two of those good people, focuses on a common issue for clinicians in referring out clients. If you are looking to do referrals in a better way, this session will give you valuable information. Join us to learn more!

Our Featured Guests

Anna O’Brien 

Jim Pasquarella

Anna O’Brien and Jim Pasquarella live and work locally in the Philly area as a clinician and commercial real estate developer, respectively. They have created a resource called The Consult List, which addresses a common problem for clinicians. “Referring out” clients to other colleagues is something every clinician faces, but what’s the best way to do it? 

Anna and Jim will share with us how they created The Consult List for clinicians to use in making sure the clients we serve are getting appropriate and helpful referrals. This resource allows clinicians to harness the power of their community and streamline the referral process. They will explain how the resource handles issues like data privacy and protection, and we will discuss how they are monetizing this free resource.

Website

You’ll Learn:

• The story behind The Consult List and how it came to be as Anna and Jim teamed up to improve access to mental health services
• How Jim’s efforts are inspired by the memory of his mom’s tireless dedication in caring for others
• How Anna and Jim met through the shared vision of making a vacant building into an affordable wellness center to serve the local community
• What The Consult List is and how it helps clinicians with referrals
• How the client can interact with The Consult List
• What a prospective clinician would have access to on The Consult List in keeping safety and privacy in mind for the prospective client
• How the location parameters are set for clinicians and clients on The Consult List
• Why The Consult List is free in its essential version and offers a premium membership with extra features
• How data is protected on this referral platform

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

I still call myself a Twitter newbie because I haven’t been there for very long, but I’ve been honored to connect with amazing people holding full and varied skill sets. I’m chatting with one of them in today’s session, someone who has helped me learn what I was doing wrong on Twitter and how I can improve. If you need Twitter help, too, join us to learn more about standing out on Twitter!

Our Featured Guest

Aadit Sheth

Aadit Sheth is a 21-year-old engineering student who started on Twitter only a couple of years ago. He has built a following of over 200,000 by focusing on the life optimization habits of top entrepreneurs. Aadit shares with us about Twitter threads and how they work to make this social media platform one of the top ways to network and stay current with technology, productivity, and business.

Website

You’ll Learn:

• How Aadit decided that Twitter would be his “place”
• How Aadit began by engaging with people he admired on Twitter and finding ways to provide value to them
• How to build strong connections through a “permission-less action” approach
• A basic understanding of Twitter threads vs. single tweets
• Aadit’s best tips for writing threads and hooks on Twitter–”80% of the performance of a thread is driven by the hook.”
• Why you should identify the emotion you want to evoke and the purpose of your thread hook (i.e. counterintuitive, suspenseful, successes, novelty)
• An example of a thread idea in a specific niche for mental health providers
• How to use templates to help find a balance between perfectionism and spontaneity in writing Twitter threads
• How to combat the crippling pressure to write the perfect Twitter thread by repurposing your content
• An overview of Aadit’s work, including the Maker’s Mark agency and course on audience building for creators and founders

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

Today’s topic is inspired by a Twitter thread I wrote about a life-changing event in our family when our daughter began preschool recently. Since she was born prematurely, going through the NICU experience four years ago coupled with the demands of entrepreneurship brought me to the realization that things had to change. The season of life that was one of the hardest things became the best thing to help me reevaluate and realign my life and goals. As much as I love my work, I wanted my life to be about much more than my work. Join me to learn how shifting my work week has made me a better entrepreneur, husband, father, and person. 

You’ll Learn:

• Business becomes more complicated with more time. 
• “You don’t have to suffer in order to succeed.”
• For any task, look to automate, delegate, eliminate, or systemize.
• There are more metrics than money. 
• “Not everything that counts can be counted.”
• The time I’ve spent and the memories I’ve made with my daughter are priceless.
• Creativity time is essential.
• Time to explore and be curious should be an intentional part of the day/week. 
• Giving your mind time for creativity and play will help you make better business decisions.
• Business doesn’t have all the answers.
• Work will not fulfill you in every aspect of life. 
• “Don’t build your life around your business; build your business to support your life.”
• Simplicity is key.
• Concise communication is essential for people to understand you.
• “Be clear, not clever.”
• Seasons don’t last.
• Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster ride, but time will pass quickly.
• “Focus on the present and be grateful for now.”
• The courage of a child is inspiring.
• Be resilient like a child, and get back up when you fall down.
• “The only way to fail in building a business is by refusing to get back up.”

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

“Will anyone listen to it? How can I grow my audience?” These are the questions that badger everyone who starts a podcast, and even though I am a veteran podcaster of several years, I know there is a lot of room to grow. The good news is that there are people who can help us learn by sharing their knowledge and experience. My guest today has answers to your biggest questions about growing and marketing your podcast. It’s easier than you think! Join us!

Our Featured Guest

Jeremy Enns

Jeremy Enns is a podcast marketing strategist for scrappy brands, networks, and creators who are looking to punch above their weight. He has helped his clients generate over 50 million podcast downloads and millions of dollars in revenue. By working with many different podcasters, Jeremy has learned what works best in podcast growth, and he’s here to share his top tips for growing a podcast strategically and intentionally. 

Website

You’ll Learn:

• Jeremy’s outlook on the fate of the podcasting industry–Is podcasting here to stay?
• Why people from different platforms are getting into podcasting to build long-term engagement
• Jeremy’s tips for beginning podcasters:
• Have realistic expectations. “The root of unhappiness is misaligned expectations.” Think of podcasting as a five-year plan for learning a new skill—and appreciate the intangibles.
• Think of marketing as just another way of creatively communicating ideas to help the people you want to serve. Find ways to make marketing fun for you.
• Use the writing methods that work best for you.
• Be an active participant in communities where you feel comfortable and always look for one-on-one conversation opportunities. “Go live in the world where your people already are.”

An overview of Jeremy’s upcoming workshop, The Minimalist Podcast Marketing Method, and his flagship course, Podcast Marketing Academy

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

Today’s topic is a fascinating one for me. As therapists, we are wired for stories, but telling an effective story online is a struggle for many of us. Fortunately for us, my guest has wisdom and tips to share to help us become awesome storytellers. Join us to learn more!

Our Featured Guest

Kieran Drew

Kieran Drew lives in Leeds, England, and is my writing coach for Twitter. In an interesting career twist, he was a dentist who left behind his stressful, work-filled life to become a copywriter/storyteller. My first connection to Kieran came through the viral story he wrote about his unique medical experiences as a teenager. He is a talented storyteller who has helped my writing immensely, and I know his insights will be helpful to anyone looking to improve their writing. 

Website

You’ll Learn:

• Why Kieran made the unconventional transition from dentist to copywriter/storyteller
• An overview of Kieran’s spinal issues involving a tumor, surgeries, and titanium rods—this is the experience that helped him discover storytelling and a new love for life
• 3 tips to become a better storyteller:
• Make a story bank by writing down everything that happens to you with specific details.
• Cut through the noise to impart a lesson. 
• Even in sales, start every point with a story. 
• How specific details make your stories more impactful
• How to draw a “lesson” from each story
• How storytelling breaks down skepticism and improves your selling ability
• How storytelling can be your differentiator in the online world
• A storytelling template: what happened/the lesson, why people should care, and a call to action
• How Kieran reviews his story bank to choose his next story

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

Today’s session is a coaching call, and our main focus is on a struggle that many course creators face. When you are an expert in your course content, how do you find the balance in presenting information without overwhelming your students? I feel sure that every course creator has felt this struggle, so I hope you find today’s call to be helpful.

Our Featured Guest for today’s coaching call:

Heather England, Ph.D., LCP, LCPC, CST, CDWF

Dr. Heather England is a coach, certified sex therapist, and licensed clinical psychotherapist in Overland Park, Kansas. She is part of our online course mastermind, which you can explore at www.sellingthecouch.com/mastermind. Heather is in the process of creating a course on erectile dysfunction, and she has already learned a lot in preparation to launch her course. Her biggest question is how to present her course without information overload for her students. You are invited to listen to the coaching call with Heather and Melvin!

Love Filled Life

You’ll Learn:

• How Heather evolved as a sex therapist and realized the need for more information
• How Heather found the niche for her online course in helping men with erectile issues
• A common mistake that our colleagues make in creating an online course
• How the STC Mastermind course has fast-tracked Heather’s course creation and launch (scheduled to begin in a few short weeks!)
• How Heather’s four-week course is structured with videos, downloadable resources, and a coaching call
• Why Heather is being intentional to allow her students to maintain anonymity if they prefer
• Tool options that can be used to allow students to submit questions to Dr. Heather privately
• Why Heather is struggling to uphold her standards of competency and concrete research without overwhelming her students with information and exercises
• How Heather is approaching a particular module of her course that includes a lot of information
• How to pare down exercises and activities to the most important “Aha moment” for students
• The value of using a survey to get feedback at the end of EACH module–rather than waiting until the end of the entire course
• Heather’s top takeaways from this coaching call and how she plans to implement what she has learned

How you can find Heather’s course, free webinar, and other resources at www.lovefilledlife.com 

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

Hello! Welcome to a brand new season of STC that will take us through September and October before I take an extended sabbatical of several months. Today’s session is a fascinating conversation about considering the greater purpose of our businesses beyond merely generating income. How can our businesses be a vehicle for much, much more in the world? Let’s discuss this topic with today’s guest!

Our Featured Guest

Ariana Lloyd, LCSW

Ariana Lloyd is a licensed clinical social worker in Portland, Oregon. She runs eight-week live cohorts to help therapists coming into private practice set up their businesses in ways that are focused on personal growth, creativity, and social justice. In this conversation, we talk about the ways her business has been a means of personal growth and healing, along with how to offer programs with intentionality and meaningful service to clients. Ariana tells us how she exercises her creative muscles through her business, and we wrap up with ways to tackle social justice issues and advocacy with intention, care, and cultural humility. 

You’ll Learn:

• How Ariana’s business became a source of healing and personal growth 
• How even the practical tasks in business-building can help heal past wounds
• How to find balance between personal healing and being of service to clients
• How Ariana has tapped into her creativity by offering her unique programs to clients
• What works best for Ariana in exercising her creativity muscles: writing and talking to a trusted friend when facing a new project
• Why clinicians have unique opportunities to step into leadership, advocacy, and empowerment for social justice issues
• How the business-building process can incorporate more radical values that address systemic change for social good
• Why Ariana offers free training on specific topics and donates to organizations doing good in the world
• How social justice applies to the sense of duty Ariana feels to help others
• An overview of Lloyd Collective offerings and the help offered to private practitioners

Mentioned in this episode: Barbara Love, author, and researcher

Connect with Ariana

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice.

Like many of you, I’m looking forward to a different 2021, but I am grateful for what we’ve learned about ourselves, our businesses, and our resilience. Today’s topic is more relevant than ever, as we all want to learn more about improving our private practice website. Join us to learn more!

Daniel Fava, from Private Practice Elevation, is my friend and an expert in website design. I trust his insight and advice, and I rely heavily on him for everything website-related. Daniel is here to share what is working for private practice websites post-pandemic. Much of what we think about our private practice websites has shifted greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what used to serve us well may not be working now. As many of us are transitioning to full-time online counseling or at least some increased element of online therapy, Daniel’s advice is relevant and timely.

Website

ROI Report

Website Audit

• What has changed about websites and online traffic since the pandemic began
• Three things that are working well for private practice websites:
• A professional website is more important than ever.
• People are searching online, so you need to have a presence there that stands out.
• Content is the foundation for getting found online.
• Foundational content includes your home page, service pages, and specialty pages.
• Online therapy has become an essential part of private practice.
• Your website audience is now expanded throughout your entire state, instead of just your local vicinity. 
• How to incorporate non-written content, like videos and podcasts, into your website
• Why you should take this opportunity to view your website through new eyes

Melvin:

Hello, welcome to session 262 of Selling the Couch. I hope you are having a good start to the New Year. Man after the fun adventure that was 2020 I am really looking forward to a different 2021. At the same time, I feel like I'm so grateful. As hard as this has been that in some ways that we were able to go through this because I think it's definitely taught all of us just how resilient we are; especially if you have been able to manage a business and during a pandemic, you're pretty legit.

So today's podcast session is with my good friend Daniel Fava from Private Practice Elevation. Daniel is an expert when it comes to website design. It's someone I rely on for both STC and my private practice website. And Daniel is here to share three of the things that are working for private practice websites post-pandemic. I know that how we think about private practice and even how we think about our private practice websites has shifted in the midst of this pandemic.

There are just things that were working in the past that are not working as well now and we've learned a lot of insights and key things in terms of what could work and what will be working going forward. Especially as many of us transition either fully to online counseling or maintain some element of online counseling in our practices. I think there are just a lot of different things there. So we'll get right to today's conversation. Here is my conversation with Daniel Fava from privatepracticeelevation.com.

Hey, Daniel, welcome back to Selling the Couch.

Daniel:

Hey Melvin, how's it going? Thanks so much for having me back.

Melvin:

You're welcome. And Happy New Year, because by the time this releases, it'll be the New Year.

Daniel:

That's right. That's always the interesting and strange part of recording podcasts is the timing bit because we're recording before Christmas, but we're saying Happy New Year.

Melvin:

Yes, absolutely. We have to get it all in our mind.

Daniel:

Yeah.

Melvin:

I'm really excited for our conversation because this pandemic this past year has up ended so many things. Even I think about like just across but especially in the mental health field. Many of us have had to transition to telehealth, think differently about marketing, and think differently about our websites. Even as we record this right now, we've had one vaccine that's I guess been approved for emergency use, but looks like a second and potentially third and fourth ones on the way. So we see the dim light at the end of the tunnel.

But I do feel like this is definitely going to change our field and how we see private practice. And I'm grateful for this conversation because you're my friend, first of all, and second here, someone that I really trust when it comes to just learning about what's working for private practice websites and websites in general. So I’m grateful for this time together.

Daniel:

Yeah, thank you so much. I'm grateful for it too. I really appreciate you having me on and it's always fun to chat about this stuff. I know that we tend to geek out a bit and so you're kind of like an equal with me as we nerd out on some of this stuff and dig into it. It's a lot of fun.

Melvin:

Yeah, absolutely! About you, I would say you're probably a little bit more. I love websites, but when it comes to at least a website, I think you take it to a level that’s more than I can go. So perhaps you’re my nerdy friend.

We were thinking about the topic for this podcast conversation, and one of the things we just realized is, websites are changing, and how we think about websites are changing in the midst of this pandemic, and even afterwards, and what I asked Daniel to share was the three things that are working for private practice websites post-pandemic. So we'll just jump right in.

Daniel, what would you say is like-- well, I guess maybe even before we get into those three things, if you could sort of give a big picture overview, how did people look at websites pre-pandemic and what do you think has changed since the pandemic?

Daniel:

Yeah. Well, I think that for a while, I kind of noticed, and I've been doing websites for therapists and private practice owners for little over four years now. And so I have seen sort of a shift and it's been kind of slow going from people were like, “Oh, maybe I need a website, maybe I don't. I've got referral networks going on. Maybe just having really basic website is enough and it's just a place that I can send people to.”

But then over the years as platforms like Squarespace have evolved and they've become more popular People are starting to see really the importance or have been seeing the importance of having a website and how it can be really an asset in their business to get more clients. That shift has really been happening slowly over the years that I've been noticing.

I remember when I first began this work and kind of just talking to people and looking at in like social media and Facebook groups and stuff like that. A lot of people there are still in this mix of like, “Oh, I'm thinking about starting a website, do I really need a website?” That sort of thing, but I feel like people have kind of really grabbed hold of; yes. “Yes, I do. I do need a website.” And especially with the shift to more online therapy, and not being able to do in person marketing and networking and stuff like that; it's become more important than ever.

Melvin:

Yeah, absolutely! I forgot who mentioned this. But this phrase has always resonated with me that, website is the modern day business card and I feel like that that statement is true now more than ever. Like you said, because of like, so many restrictions and having a presence online is just really important, especially because telehealth was growing, and it's definitely not going away post-pandemics.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely, and that's really my point number one was kind of just starting at the beginning. And I wrote down in my notes here, a professional website is more important than ever, because so many people are turning to online, so many people are turning to searching- clients are searching for these services in Google and if you're not able to do in person networking, and you don't have a number of different streams for your marketing, you could be missing out on a lot of potential clients there.

Melvin:

Yeah, absolutely! So you said a professional website is more important than ever. So what's the difference between a regular website and a professional website?

Daniel:

Well, with the shift that's been happening is that a lot more people are as we said, getting smart to the fact that you need to have that presence online, especially if you're doing online therapy, you can reach more and more people and we'll talk a little bit more about that later on. So many people really hustled to get their online presence in order. And that was really what we saw a lot in my business was, I got all this influx of people who were like, “My website is just, it's really crappy, I haven't done anything with it. It's just kind of there. But now we are really in need of more clients especially with the uncertainty of COVID.”

When all that started a lot of people weren't investing in their online marketing or their website. So a number of therapists came running to us like, “Hey, I need help, I got to get this in order, we need to get this up, so our clients don't dry up.” That's great, but when you kind of look at the big picture for each of those individual therapists, that often lead to even more competition; more people are investing in their websites, more people are getting their SEO in order. So that means that there's more competition, especially if you're in a densely populated area or largest city.

So it's important not to only have a website, but you have to have one that really stands out, because people are going to be doing those searching, they're going to be researching who do they want to work with, who's the best person to help me with my challenges. So you want to make sure that your website stands out. So when I talk about professional, and this is not just because I am a web designer, yeah that can be a little bit of part of it.

But you want a website that does what it's meant to do. It's got to be clean; it's got to be modern and easy to use. And if you really want to stand out among that crowd of competition, you want your website to look stellar, you want it to be professional, you want it to work the way it's supposed to work to get you more clients.

Melvin:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think both with selling the couch as well as my private practice website, I felt like, especially with selling the couch, I felt like I was like a little bit naive to it. I just thought, what website is, I can kind of use a template and put my main sections up and put the words up. But I think what you're saying is a website in a way is kind of this living, breathing thing and evolving thing. So just because you post something or have a certain sections doesn't mean you stop tweaking it.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely, and I understand that there's certainly a starting point for everybody. Budgets are super important when it comes to should you invest or should you build it yourself? You want to make sure that no matter what stage you're at, you are investing whether that's time or money into your website to make it better and better and make it stand.

One client of ours comes to mind and she is in New York City and so there's a lot of competition in her location and she had a website that she put together herself on Wix, and there was a lot of just for me, as a designer, when I come to it, I can see all the things that are just kind of out of place, or it's missing the right content, or it's hard to schedule that first appointment or a consultation call. And so we worked on her website, and we redesigned it made it beautiful, professional, easy to use works on mobile, and then when her website went live in just three months, she went from about eight clients a week to 25 clients a week.

That project actually, funny thing, it didn't really have a lot of focus on SEO. But because she was getting a number of people searching through Psychology and landing on her website, because we focused on that conversion optimization, she was able to get more leads, have more phone calls with people, and then sign those people up.

So certainly investing in a website; it's my hope, it’s my desire and it's really our goal to make sure that we help our clients reach those goals and impact their business. Like I don't want to just create pretty websites to create pretty websites, and that's something that I’ve really been passionate about over the last year, is I want to dig in and be a partner with people in their private practices, in their business and how many more clients do they want in their business? What goals are they trying to achieve?

Melvin:

Yeah, I know. Absolutely, all are really good points. I wanted to come back to something you said a little bit earlier.

Daniel:

Sure.

Melvin:

A professional website-- like this is can really be silly question; should there be like, especially in 2121, should there be like certain core elements in a professional website? Like, you should have a homepage, you should have a specialty page, like any of that kind of stuff? I'd be like, really interested to hear from you and pick your brain on that.

Daniel:

Yeah, absolutely, and we can actually go there. That's kind of part of my point number two here for things that are working post-pandemic.

Melvin:

It's so funny. Like I asked Daniel like to share these tips, but I haven't seen the tips, and it's funny how we're on the same wavelength. So yeah, let's jump into point two, then.

Daniel:

Yeah, you're tracking with me here. So number two is that content is still the foundation for getting found online. With the folks who have come to us over the last year who are really starting to focus in on their online marketing, I would hear time and again, “We're not getting found for these keywords, the right types of clients that we want to track aren't coming to the website.” And when I dig in and look at their current website, I can see just clear holes in their content.

I've really been working on really our process at Private Practice Elevation, like what do we do to elevate people's practices with their online presence, and I've been working on this diagram. I think we've spoken about this before. But I have these three circles, and in the first circle, the very first thing that we focus on really is the foundation, the foundational content for your website.

What I mean by that is yes, definitely having a homepage. Your homepage is super important, because it's often the most visited page on the website, and that homepage really serves to get people to the information that they're looking for as quickly as possible, and as easily as possible. So that could be an introduction to you and your private practice, followed by the services that you offer, and getting people to those services pages; and that's really the second most important thing, if not the most important.

It's kind of like a toss-up between the homepage and your service pages, because your service pages are so specific and that's really where the SEO piece comes in; and I encourage people to get creative, and it might sound like a lot of content. But this is something that you can develop over time, you can start with your initial services, might just look like individual therapy in Atlanta, or whatever the city is, couples counseling in Atlanta. But then over time, you want to build those things out to have subpages even under that and all of those really act as ways for Google to see those services.

Because people are more likely to search for anxiety therapy or counseling after divorce, something like that, and maybe not just couples counseling, but it's related to couples counseling, you understand what I'm saying?

Melvin:

Yeah.

Daniel:

You got to really dig into the services and the topics and the things that you help your clients with. And that's really the best way even before you start building links back to the website or doing other things that are off of your website, you really got to focus on that content.

Melvin:

Yeah, that's like really good stuff. So I wanted to just understand because you said like specialty pages. So would that be like I often get confused between these. Like it's a specialty page saying like, you do individual counseling versus couples counseling, those are separate pages or are the specialty pages like the niches that you serve?

I can even give like a practical example from my own private practice. So in general I think my niche is successful by overwhelmed entrepreneurs. But within that, like I have pages for entrepreneurs with what's called founder depression and then I have like specialty page for entrepreneur from a dysfunctional family or alcohol dysfunctional family. So I guess, are those the examples of the specialty pages?

Daniel:

Right, yeah. That's what I consider the specialty pages. And another example, just to kind of drive this home, we just worked on a website for a psychologist, Long Island, New York, which I'm super excited about, because that's where I grew up. So it's fun to look at their content and see all the towns nearby where I grew up at. So my Long Island accent kind of came out while I was working on that project. But anyway, so they have done a great job; their website was very outdated, but the content that they had was incredible. It was like 95 pages of content and I was like, “Oh, my goodness, they have done a really great job and they’re getting great traffic, because of all the different content that they have on there.”

So what it kind of looks like and how it's organized. And I just pulled it up just to get this right. So they've got services on their homepage, they list their services for individual therapy and couples...

Today’s show takes on a very niched perspective, but the information and wisdom are useful in many aspects of our work as clinicians and business owners. We are specifically discussing how to move from an online course to a membership model. Maybe you’ve wondered about these components of your practice and how to make the transition. Join us for expert advice!

Our Featured Guest

Jennifer McGurk, RDN, CDN, CEDRD-S

Jennifer McGurk is a registered dietitian in NY whose specialty is helping clients with eating disorders. She made the transition from an online course to a membership model, so she is sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of such a move. I hope our discussion will be helpful to you if you’re considering a similar transition.

Website

You’ll Learn:

●     How membership sites can help a clinician accomplish career goals

●     Details of Jennifer’s journey in private practice from an online course to a membership model

●     The benefits to therapist and client of a membership model over a one-time course model

●     How imposter syndrome can crop up when creating a membership site

●     How it’s helpful to see others reaching their goals in transitioning from an online course to a membership site

●     Common mistakes in this transition

●     What the business gurus DON’T tell you about your online course as a passive income stream

●     The components of Jennifer’s membership site: Dietitian Business School

●     Jennifer’s advice to a clinician either launching an online course or making the transition to a membership site

Hushmail - Hushmail is a safe and secure way to email and send secure forms (e.g., intake packets and consent forms) to potential and current clients.

Please visit https://sellingthecouch.com/hushmail and please let them know Mel sent you =).

Melvin:

Hi Jennifer,

welcome back to Selling the Couch.

Jennifer:

Hi, Melvin; thank

you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you.

Melvin:

I really enjoyed

our last conversation. I'm so grateful that you reached out, you are doing just

so many neat things in the world, so many out of the box things. And I'm just

grateful when you reached out and then two, just to hear about the journey and

share all the lessons and all those things that you've learned.

Jennifer:

Yeah, thank you so

much. I'm so grateful for your work, too. We were talking before we hit record

about how mental health is so needed right now and therapists are doing such an

awesome job. So anyone out there listening, thank you for your work too. It's a

time where people really need mental health services.

Melvin:

Yeah, absolutely;

I do feel so grateful to be part of this profession. I don't know who could

have imagined something like this. But I think one of the things that's really

been on my mind, especially through this pandemic, I think it was there before

but it's kind of accelerated it is this question of like, what do I want my

career to look like? And where do I want to focus my energy?

And one of the

things that I've kind of realized is, I actually want to eventually just

completely pull back on one on one work or if I have to it's kind of more

higher-priced and it's very limited. And I think one of the ways that you can

do that is through online courses and membership sites. I think there's like a

lot of information online about how to do these, all of that kind of stuff. But

I wanted to hear from you, because you had an online course, you transitioned

into a membership site, you're actually doing it and yeah, I'm just so

grateful, I think for this conversation.

Jennifer:

Yeah, thank you so much for letting me to share my story. Yes, I did have a course and I was in

the same situation that you have just said, I was seeing clients and I had been

seeing clients at that point for probably seven years or so in private practice

and even more before that, before I started my private practice, and I did get

to the point where- I was going to say burnout, but I just wanted to do

something different because I specialize in eating disorders.

I felt like

everyone's story is very different in a way. But I was seeing the same thing

over and over again and I just thought to myself; I really want to work with Dietitians,

as well to teach them all of the knowledge that I've learned over the years, from

working with clients and my own supervision and just everything that I've

learned about business.

So that's when I

started my second company pursuing private practice. And pursuing private

practice really was for Dietitians to start and grow a business. So long story

short, it started out as a book series, it turned into a DIY course, and then

it kind of morphed itself into a group program/business coaching, hot seat,

stuff Facebook group, and it just got way too big for a one time purchase and I

felt like I was coaching forever.

So I turned it

into a membership and that membership Dietician Business School has really done

awesome in the past six months since it's been open, and I've been able to

bring on team members and really help Dietitians in a way that feels so good,

because I'm giving them so much support. And I'm not burnout, because it's a

membership versus a one-time course payment. So I'm happy to talk and elaborate

on that process, because it was a journey to transfer it from a course to an

actual membership.

Melvin:

Yeah, I know. It

is quite a bit of a journey. So for those of you guys are listening, I had a

very similar process, I guess back in like 2018, where I had my health casters

podcasting course and then it was a single payment. And then I got to this

point where for me I hated doing these launches, and I hated the like you said

the one off kind of payments. And then I just began to think about how I think

the question that you just or the statement that you said, of thinking about your

own personal health and how do you sort of scale this while preserving that

aspect, right?

Jennifer:

Yes, definitely. I

think courses are great, and for anyone out there interested in even doing a

course I think courses are really great for information, and really awesome to

start someone on a journey. But let's face it; a lot of times the business

gurus out there that are teaching people how to sell courses are basically

saying, “Oh, it's passive income, create once and sit on the beach and watch

your money roll in.” Which I absolutely hate; I feel like it's diet culture in what

I do, I'm an eating disorders dietician.

So I feel like

it's this false message of hope. But yet, the reality of it is that your people

are going to have questions, they are going to need to process and the

information, and they are going to want to bounce ideas off of somebody, and you

can provide more than just the information as a course. But if you do that

you're probably creating a Facebook group or you're having people come to group

calls. And that in my opinion, I have learned kind of the hard way like, that's

a membership, that's not a course.

So I was doing

this one time course all the way up until I probably knew I needed to change

January 2020, before the pandemic, but once March hit, what happened to me was

just, “Oh my Gosh, my people need help.” So I added extra group calls to my

course, I added more prompts in my Facebook group. I added so many different

workshops and things like that. And I saw that my Dietitians were getting so

many results from it, they were actually doing better.

And this was where

COVID was really starting to hit our at least in the United States, like in

March was starting to hit our country and people with eating disorders were

really struggling. So the Dietitians are really struggling and no one really

knew what was going on. So I felt like all the support that I gave my Dietitians

in my course, was so helpful and I could see the results happening I could see

people making better connections and I almost created a little bit of a mock

membership in that Facebook group and group calls. And then I decided like

okay, this is working, but I need to really officially change my business

model.

Melvin:

Yeah, that's cool.

So a lot of really great information, I want to like break it down here. So

practical kind of tools; the group was on what? Was it on Facebook? Or was it

on? Where was the group on?

Jennifer:

The course started

out as information in teachable. I use teachable and I really like teachable

although you can use whatever platform you want. I did information in teachable

and then we had a Facebook group and we had zoom group calls once a month just

as a quick QA and it was great. It was awesome to connect with people.

But I personally

don't feel like that's enough of a connection for a lot of people like people

need constant reminders, people need to feel supported, people need to process.

So once COVID hit, I really stepped up to the plate and I said my people need

me. And granted meanwhile, Melvin I know you know what it's like to have

children at home. My two kids were home. We lost our babysitting for a couple

months. But looking back, I don't even know how I did that. But I did it. But

yeah, we were meeting over zoom with a group call. So you would see in my old

course site, it was literally like 15 group calls just one after the other.

That's not a course that's a membership.

Melvin:

Yeah, it's such a

good way. So you notice, like you looked at the practical schedule, and you

were like, “Oh my Gosh, this isn't sustainable.” You said it so clearly,

though. But like, this is not a course this is a membership; was it as clear

cut in your mind? Or was this like, “Oh my Gosh, I'm going to betrayed my

members, or like all of that?

Jennifer:

It was clear cut

in my mind. But how do I say this, it was not clear cut in my heart, maybe in

my soul. My brain knew that I needed to switch. But my heart had a really hard

time with it. Because I felt like I was going betray the Dietitians that had

signed up for my course and I had a little bit of imposter syndrome, like “Who

am I to run a membership program for Dietitians in business?” Because I feel

like everyone has imposter syndrome when they start something new.

I really just felt

like, “Oh my Gosh, what if people don't like it,” that scary type of feeling.

But then I thought to myself, and there are so many parallels, in my opinion

with running a business and eating disorder recovery, which is what I focus on

in my practice. My clients do hard things all the time, they really battle

eating disorder thoughts, and behaviours and feelings every single day, like

sometimes even every single hour, and to think about all the clients that I have

helped and I've said to them, “You can do hard things.”

I kind of said to

myself, I can do hard things and I can make decisions from a place of where I

want to be, and almost by making that decision, I hope to inspire other people

and other business owners that they can make those hard decisions too. And not

everyone is going to like your decision and that just goes without saying even

if you were to stay in the same exact model, some people are not going to like

that decision. So you have to almost make a decision based on what's best for

you as an act of self-care.

Melvin:

How do you deal

with that part? Because that's the part I often struggle with, which is knowing

there's going to be a percentage of people that will be upset by this.

Jennifer:

Yes. Oh, my Gosh

yeah. And honestly, I don't know if I have a great answer with that, because I

feel like some people are more sensitive than others. Some people are more

empathetic than others. Some people just feel other people's energy. But I

think what I said to myself is, you are going to have some people that are not going

to like this decision, but you have to think about what's best for you because

if you burn out, there's going to be no online business. And you really want to

do this; this is your passion. This is your calling, I almost felt like I know

that it's a little Woo but I love it. Like this is my calling and his is what I

want to do. And I think also to seeing other people's memberships, and not in

like a comparison type of way. But seeing other people's memberships really

work and being a part of other people's memberships. It helps casters included

because I was a part of health casters for a long time; I saw that people were

doing it and I saw that other people are turning their models into memberships too.

So that was really helpful to see other people reaching goals that I wanted to

do as well.

Melvin:

I think that's a

really good point. And I would say for those of you guys are listening, one

thing that was really helpful for me, I don't know that I thought about it, and

it but I feel like there's a common overlap between our two courses in that I

think there's some wisdom, even if you want to start with an online course.

Initially, I think

there's some wisdom in just thinking like, is the content of this online

course? Is it possible to move it or scale it into a membership model? Like,

can you add things like, I don't know, I can't think of a tangible example of

him where that wouldn't be beneficial. But I don't know. Just asking that

simple question, I think was really helpful for me.

Jennifer:

Yeah, definitely, I

think it also depends on your content and your mission too. And for me, I teach

Dietitians, especially non-diet dietitians, which is like anti-diet, eating

disorder recovery, intuitive eating, and weight inclusive dietitians like I'm

in a very special, specific niche.

Jennifer:

I teach dietitians how to run a

business from that lens. Diet Culture is everywhere. There are mixed messages

with marketing everywhere my people need to process, they need to experiment,

they need to try, they have questions on not just business stuff, but clinical

cases. We all need a lot of support, especially my dietitians; we need a

community and a lot of support sometimes, because we're battling against diet

culture, which is so normal, especially if we're recording in January,

especially this time of year. 

So it's important for them to feel

supported. And I just felt like I couldn't give the amount of support that I

wanted to give in a onetime course. I almost needed to hold their hand with

more group calls and more accountability, more team members, more people other

than me, which I couldn't really afford to do when it was a onetime thing. Now

I can bring on a lot more people, which is really awesome.

Melvin:

That is really awesome. What are the

components now? What were the components when it was just a one off course?

Like it was the course the community and then a monthly coaching? What is it

now?

Jennifer:

Okay, so I'll tell you my mistake

with the course, which for anyone listening, you can totally learn from my

mistake. The mistake with the course was that it was just a course and people

were paying for a course. And then I added Facebook group, I added the group

calls. So they didn't expect it almost at first. And again, my course started

in 2017. Once it grew, and I was launching over and over again, I would talk to

you about these things, but that was my mistake to kind of just do that just,

here you go, which I love doing. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret anything

I've done. 

Now a Dietitian Business School is,

well, first of all, when I decided to revamp the course, I should say this is

important. I decided it was time for an update because that's another thing

that a lot of the business gurus don't tell you. They say make a course and

record once, and then you're going to be making money in your sleep and you can

go on vacation all the time, you don't have to work. And that's like totally

not true. So you have to really record your information in a course. I don't

know what you would say, Melvin every two, three years, maybe like things are

different, things are updated.

Melvin:

Yeah, it's a great point. So for me,

at least with health casters, and just being completely transparent, I don't

think I have done as good of a job as I could. Partly was related to having the

baby and just having such limited time. But now what I've started to do is

actually check in with the community twice a year, like January July ish,

saying, “Hey guys, what things need updating?” 

I think the general parameter that

I've been following, if it's like a course that's related to something that's

rapidly evolving, something like podcasting, you probably need to do it more

frequently. Whereas if it's like topics that have, I guess, some evergreen

potential, I think you can go through and tweak as needed.

Jennifer:

Yeah, it's a really good point that

there's obviously no right answer. But thinking about your niche and who you're

serving and the updated information and things like that is such a good point.

So I felt like it was time for an update from me for Dietitian Business School.

So I re-recorded all of the lessons. So basically, there's three parts, it's

the business education part. So it went from 10 to 20 lessons. I actually

added, I doubled the content there because there's just...

If the topic of building your personal brand on social media brings feelings of anxiety and insecurity, then today’s show is for you. As clinicians, we know it makes sense to have a digital footprint in the online world, but it’s difficult to know just how to establish yourself with authenticity and transparency. There are so many nuances to the intimidating world of social media! Today’s conversation will give you valuable insight and practical tips to help people get to know, like, and trust you. Join us to learn more.

Our Featured Guest-Lisa Mustard, LMFT

Lisa Mustard is a personal brand coach, psychoeducator, therapist, podcaster, and self-described personal development junkie in South Carolina. This mom of two has created an awe-inspiring presence on social media around topics like fitness, health, mindset, and goals. Recording with her phone, Lisa proves that a high-quality, high-dollar studio is not a requirement for building your personal brand, and she does it in very unique and authentic ways. Lisa joins us to talk about what personal branding is, how much to share, and that all-important line between OK and TMI. We’ll wrap up with the most common mistake people make in personal branding and three tips that you can utilize today to start building your personal brand on social media.

Lisa Mustard

You’ll Learn

●     What is a personal brand? Your reputation, what people say about you, and what you’re known for

●     The best way to narrow your brand down to three specific things is to identify your top values and priorities

●     Why you have to be clear and specific about how you want to move forward on social media

●     How to decide how much to share online

●     The most common mistake people make is----not taking the time to build a personal brand

●     Three tips for a clinician who wants to build a personal brand:

○     Identify your strengths, uniqueness, and how you help people

○     Know your values and what you stand for

○     Know where you want to go and what you want to accomplish

●     Why you should realize that not everyone will resonate with your message---and that’s OK

●     Why social media is the best place to build your personal brand

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Learn More at https://sellingthecouch.com/headway

Disclosures: Please note that all opinions are my own and based on my personal experience. Sponsors are acknowledged. Some links in the description are affiliate links where if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I use these funds to continue to create helpful content to serve our field. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

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