The Experienced Entrepreneur

Hey Risers! Today I’m sharing my coaching call with Melissa, an LCSW in New York State who wants to book out her new coaching program geared towards moms of special needs children.

In our conversation, we talk about launching services, sales calls, and the mindset shift from therapist to coach. I also go over how to add value in Facebook Groups, what to pin on Pinterest and how to scale her coaching.

This episode is honestly a reality check. It's true that coaching is the easiest way to make money online. It outsells any other offers. It's also true, however, that just because you start "offering" coaching does not mean clients will come. This is not Field of Dreams you guys! There’s no such thing as putting an offer out there and all of a sudden thousands of dollars flocking your way. We need to be intentionally promoting and marketing our online businesses to build sustainable income streams.

If you’re looking to scale your coaching or have any questions, reach out to me!

Empathy Rising FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathyrisingcommunity/

My Email: [email protected]

If you’ve been listening for a while you know that one of my special talents is taking these more complex (and let’s be honest: confusing as hell) topics and breaking them down into clear, actionable pieces.

Getting your practice visible online is one of those topics.

This week we’re going to talk about online marketing techniques to fill any practice whether solo, group, in-person, or online. I’m breaking down the exact five steps I use - and what I teach inside Cathartic Marketing - to help get your practice visible online. This is the exact process I use every week to create the podcast episodes you listen to, but it works if you’re wanting to blog or create YouTube videos as well.

It’s essential that your practice has an online presence.

If you wanna have any type relationship with referral sources you can bet they are going to look you up online. Your website is a business card. No one is using the yellow pages anymore. So these are the reasons why even if you’re not doing online marketing you still need a great website.

If you’re going to have a piece of online real-estate, make it worth your time and money. Ready to build a website that actually converts clients? I’ll walk you step by step on branding ideal client, SEO, content creation, and social media.

There are only 6 spots left in Cathartic Marketing. Grab your spot here: http://marissalawton.com/cathartic-marketing

Today I’m sharing a recent FB Live I did inside The Empathy Rising FB Community. I’m recapping the Heartfelt Homepage Event. This was the best event I’ve ever held! Everyone who actively participated got so and much insight and so much clarity. These therapists were striking gold with their copy.

Your homepage is the welcome mat to your website. It lets your ideal client know they are in the right place and gets them in the door to learn more about your practice. Too often therapists are too clinical or too vague in their copy. In these four days, we broke through the jargon and participates spoke from a place of passion.

Marketing doesn’t have to put you in a box. It’s not one size fits all or rigid rules. Yes, there are guidelines. Yes, there are best practices. But it all comes down to showing up as your authentic self.

Empathy Rising FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathyrisingcommunity

Your homepage is arguably the most important page on your website as it is the first impression a person will have with you and your practice.

It is the place to affirm your ideal client and if you fail to do that, the person you really want on your caseload is likely to click off of your site and head to another clinician’s.

A poorly written homepage gives off a bad first impression. A potential client can’t tell if they can be helped or if you are the right person to help them. But also, and maybe more damaging, doubt about themselves, and the potential for their presenting problem to get better. So this episode is all about shedding some light on why your homepage is so important. Not to mention what your ideal clients need to read so they schedule with you!

We are going over all the technical aspects of the homepage on your website. We’ll dive into how your homepage functions, how to format it, it’s main goal, and how to make it convert. We also give some actionable steps to take to make it exactly what you want it to be. Not to mention what your ideal clients need to read so they book you!

It’s not too late! Ready to create your FREE Heartfelt Homepage? Click here to join me and your colleagues for this really cool community building event starting TODAY: bit.ly/therapy-homepage

FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathyrisingcommunity

The entrepreneurial spirit brings with it a bunch of positive qualities.

The problem comes, however, when we get too caught up in this drive to succeed and our identity becomes intertwined with the results instead of the journey.

When we’re in that place where we tie our happiness and sense of worth to our accomplishments, it can be really difficult to look at our practices with an objective viewpoint.

What’s worse, is that being wrapped up in the success of your practice is only taking you further away from this goal because you aren’t able to bring your best qualities to building your business - especially marketing.

The best marketing is showing up and putting yourself and your practice out there in an authentic and vulnerable way. If your self-worth is tied to the success of your practice it can make it really difficult to show up as you. And it can lead you to make some marketing choices that don’t feel quite right because they sound good in the moment or are “proven” to get results.

How I get out of a business funk?

Here are a few of my favorite tips, many that I actually use myself, to step back from my business a bit so when I’m ready to work on marketing I can do so feeling fresh and able to be authentic.

Ready to create your FREE Heartfelt Homepage? Click here to join me and your colleagues for this really cool community building event starting March 18th: bit.ly/therapy-homepage

FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathyrisingcommunity

Whenever you’re building a business, there’s a lot of pressure to get it right.

The drive to nail practice building can lead us down a path of seeking out any and all information in order to be successful business owners. There are thousands of blog posts to read, videos to watch, podcasts to listen to and coaches to hire that all promise to get you closer to your business goals.


One issue, however, is that a lot of them are sharing different information, and sometimes that information downright contradicts what you might have consumed earlier. So all the while, while you’re trying to do the right things to build your practice the right way, you’re falling deeper into some falsehoods or myths that might actually be stalling your growth. The truth is, there are absolutely some concrete marketing strategies that will get you results.

Growing a business is much more intuitive than people will let on. When you ignore this innate and intuitive side of marketing your practice you restrict yourself and, not to sound to woo, you’re sending those restrictive vibes into the universe. In this episode, I share how to incorporate marketing advice with who you are at the core.


So let’s dive into the three big myths you believe about marketing your private practice! 
 Once you bust through these restrictions, you’ll be well on your way to tapping your intuition and growing your practice to the level you imagine.

Ready to create your FREE Heartfelt Homepage? Click here to join me and your colleagues for this really cool community building event starting March 18th: bit.ly/therapy-homepage

There’s no getting around it, in 2019 you need a website. The Yellow Pages are extinct. Even if you give out a business card, it goes straight into someone’s purse or wallet. Even if they are trying to remember your address or check your business hours, they are pulling out their phone and looking you up online.

But, if you’re gonna pay for a website, you want it to be an asset for your practice, and you want to earn a return on that investment.

The truth is, your website is one of the marketing features of your practice that has the most potential. It’s a resource for clients at all hours, allows you to take advantage of both push and pull marketing, and is an online home for existing clients and followers.

I think most people get overwhelmed here because the potential of a website is so great, that they think they have to capitalize on every single website strategy to be effective, but the truth is, you can narrow in on ONE or maybe TWO until you feel like you’ve got them down and then slowly branch into the others.

The lack of education, or more likely, the plethora of unorganized information, leads a lot of therapists to make some simple mistakes with their website. So let’s dive into the seven most common mistakes I see on therapy websites and how to fix them. Cause once you make these tweaks your website will turn into a client converting machine.

Ready to create your FREE Heartfelt Homepage? Click here to join me and your colleagues for this really cool community building event starting March 18th: bit.ly/therapy-homepage

Any time we set out to learn a new skill, there's a learning curve.

No one knows how to do things perfectly right away and there are a lot of starts, stops, and stumbles along the way. Especially when it comes to building a business. What I think is so interesting about therapists is that we rely heavily on training, we hold advanced degrees, advanced certificates, and are always working on our competence. It’s ingrained in us to seek out training and further our skills. Marketing is no different.

Today I’m sharing the answers of the top marketing questions for online practices. We’re getting into ethical concerns, about pages, turning away clients, and kicking Imposter Syndrome to the curve! 

Though there are definite drawbacks to feeling awkward about marketing, listen in this week so you can move past them and start to enjoy the marketing process. When you bring your own flavor to it you’ll see some pretty big changes. Ready to create your FREE Heartfelt Homepage? Click here to join me and your colleagues for this really cool community building event starting March 18th: bit.ly/therapy-homepage

Hey, Risers! Today I’m sharing my coaching call with Marissa, a sex therapist who specializes in poly relationships and infidelity in Vancouver, Washington. As she’s jumping back into private practice, she’s seeking ways to market herself online and in her community.

In our conversation, we discover her ideal client, their buying psychology and crafting a unique brand message that speaks to them. I also go over the importance of having a stellar website, blogging, SEO hacks, and what to post on social media.

The biggest takeaway from Marissa’s call is to be your authentic self. We can easily get lost in buzzwords or being overly professional that we forget to be human.

At the end of the day, people buy from people they know, like, and trust. There’s a sweet spot where you and your ideal client connect. That touch point might be the way you speak in session, a mutual hobby, or even a joke. The more ‘you’ you can be the better!

If you loved today’s episode and hearing the insights and clarity Marissa gained through our coaching call reach out to me on my website or email me at [email protected] Want the opportunity for free coaching call with me? Head on over to The Empathy Rising Community and fill out the application to be a guest on the podcast. I would love to have you on the show, thanks guys!

Doing the same thing over and over...

can start to get really freaking boring.

And when you’re writing a different version of the same 2000 words on a weekly basis, blogging can start to feel like a chore rather than an enjoyable way to market your private practice.

Now, while I’m the queen of type-A structure and systems, I do agree that incorporating variety into your blogging strategy is a must. First, it keeps you from getting bored. And it also allows you clients to binge on the content you’ve created and start to get a clear sense of what it would be like to work with you.

On this episode, I talk about the five types of blog posts that work really well for a therapy practice, how to make sure you have variety on your blog, and share whether everything you write has to have a pre-defined purpose.

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.marissalawton.com/quiz

FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathyrisingcommunity