Who Will Refer To You?

I have been hearing a question lately from therapists new to private practice: “Who are my ideal referral partners?” I’m a big advocate of having at least 30 professionals who you trade referrals with regularly. I have found that when you have at least 30 professionals referring to you, have a good chance of building a full practice.

Why you should build your relationships with other newer therapists:

Some therapists who are new to private practice ask me if they should bother putting energy into relationships with colleagues who are also new to private practice. “None of us have enough clients, so we really can’t help each other.” I disagree. I want you to look at your practice building from a long point of view. When you’re thinking about another new therapist, ask yourself if you respect this person’s work and could imagine referring a client to this person. If the answer is yes, invest in that relationship. It is priceless to have long-term colleagues who you trust and who you’ve known throughout your career. Also, even the newest therapist will have people to refer out from time to time. Conflict of interest issues come up at every stage of private practice and no one can work with every person who calls.  

Why you should ALSO build relationships with seasoned therapists:

Just as often, newer therapists ask me if they should bother putting energy into relationships with their former supervisors, former teachers, or other highly experienced clinicians. “They already have full practices, and they don’t want to refer to a new therapist.” The truth is that seasoned therapists want to know colleagues from all stages of development. We want to know some therapists who are closer to the beginning  because it keeps us fresh and engaged. Newer therapists often have a passion and excitement for the work that seasoned therapists like to be around. That’s part of the reason so many of us supervise interns. Also, don’t assume that seasoned therapists all have full practices. Many of my coaching clients have over 20 years experience and have never learned to market themselves.

When newer therapists worry about who they should build relationships with, I notice an underlying fear: scarcity. When you believe that there aren’t enough clients out there for you, you’ll find yourself believing that networking with other therapists will be fruitless. If you don’t have a full practice, that scarcity narrative can be so convincing! Shift your mindset and see your colleagues as your collaborators. Work to have a group of referral partners who you like and respect. Over time, nurture relationships with colleagues who are diverse in experience level as well as in area of specialty.

Take the long view, and you’ll have a group of referral partners to share your success and struggles with throughout your career. 

Why Should a Therapist Blog?

Should you write a blog? Here are some reasons blogging might or might not be a good fit for your practice building strategy. 

Why blog?

Because you like to write

If you prefer writing to public speaking or networking, blogging is a way you can “speak” directly to your ideal clients. You can let people get to know who you are as a therapist by sharing your ideas and your voice. If you like writing enough to write for an hour each week, blogging might be a good tool for you. If you’re comfortable with video, you can sometimes create simple videos instead of writing.

Because you have something to say

You’ll need to come up with topics regularly. You don’t have to come up with unique or earth shattering ideas for each blog entry. Your blog entries will address what your ideal clients come to you for help with. You can discuss research, share your opinions, and sometimes give advice. Your purpose here is to share your voice and how you think about these issues, not to come up with all the answers. Blogging is different from writing articles for professional journals. You’ll want to keep your voice accessible and personal.

Because you want to improve your search engine optimization

If you blog regularly, once a week or more, you can begin to improve your S.E.O… But don’t start blogging if you don’t like to write! Therapists who start blogging only because someone told them this would improve their web traffic end up feeling like the blog is a burden and a chore. Those blogs quickly end up in the graveyards of the internet.

Think carefully about whether blogging will be an enjoyable way to reach out to the people you love to work with. If the answer is no, don’t blog. You can create your strategy using dozens of other practice building tools that will fit you better. If you do decide to blog, contact me for a free consultation. We can discuss how to avoid common pitfalls and make sure your blog works to build your practice. 

Is It Hard For You to Claim Your Expertise?

One of the best ways to build a robust private practice is to become an established expert in one area of specialty. When you choose an area of specialty and then become known for that by writing, public speaking, and talking to colleagues about that specialty, your practice will grow quickly. Many therapists get uncomfortable about this and they say “I don’t want to claim to be an expert.” If you’re thinking this, maybe you need to adjust your thinking on what it means to be an expert.

If an expert is a person who knows everything about a certain issue, can help any person solve problems around that issue, has 20 years of experience, and has none of their own problems with that issue, well then perhaps you can’t be an expert. Let’s question that definition! Here’s a secret: some of the people you think are experts probably doubt themselves too.

Here’s what I think an expert is: a person who is passionate, knowledgeable, and regularly engaged with a particular issue; someone who perhaps struggles with that issue as well, and has a lot of both personal and professional experience with the issue; someone who has a lot of ideas and questions about an issue and likes to be in complex conversations about that issue.

In order to be seen as an expert, you never actually have to say “I am an expert.” As you stand tall in your knowledge, skills and point of view in your area of expertise, others will recognize that you are an expert. Perhaps your clients will recognize that you are the kind of expert they can get real help from, the kind who doesn’t claim to know everything and is open to different ideas.

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#10

This is the last in a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#10: Why aren't my practice building efforts working?!

You’re putting in a lot of time trying to build your practice. Why isn’t it working? Here are the four main reasons your efforts may not be increasing your income:

You’re trying to do too many things, not doing anything consistently.

Every worthwhile practice building method requires consistent effort over time. For example, I’ve talked to therapists who claimed that networking doesn’t work because they had some coffee dates with colleagues and didn’t get referrals from those people within a few months. Networking successfully is about building real relationships over time with referral partners. It takes time and it takes follow through.

If you find yourself trying one approach, getting fed up and trying another, you’re slowing down your success. Pick a few solid approaches, and stick with them consistently. Don’t switch your approaches before they start working!

You aren’t giving people a clear sense of what is unique about you.

If you aren’t clear about what sets you apart from every other therapist out there, all of your practice building efforts will have a much smaller impact. When you know what is unique about you as a therapist and you communicate it clearly, your practice building efforts have a powerful motor. Everything you do, from networking to improving your website to public speaking is all working to easily draw your most ideal clients into your practice.

You aren’t comfortable with making money.

If there is part of you that feels uncomfortable with making a good living as a therapist, you probably won’t. Your money set point is the maximum amount of money you feel comfortable earning. It comes from many conscious and unconscious sources, including your family history around money and your political views. If your money set point is lower than your conscious goal, you’ll sabotage your success. Even when success is within reach, you’ll get in your own way.  

Your efforts are working, but you don’t realize it yet.

Let’s say you’ve been working consistently on practice building for several months, you’re not having any of the above problems, but your practice isn’t making you a good living. Take a look at what is happening in your practice right below the surface. Are you getting more calls than you were a few months ago? Are there more visitors to your website? Are more of your colleagues aware of your unique work? If any of these things are true, your practice may be right on the verge of a big increase. Stay with it!

 If you get stuck in your practice building efforts, don’t make the mistake of trying to do it alone. If this is the work you’re called to do, and you know you want to work for yourself, don’t give up and don’t let anyone talk you out of it. I’m here to help.   

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#9

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#9: What numbers do I need to track in my practice?

Let’s talk about the numbers in your business. Are you glazing over? Feeling dread?  The numbers involved in your practice may bore you or stress you out. I can promise you that when you know these particular numbers, you’ll make better business decisions.

Track only what is necessary and let go of the rest, because your time is precious.  

Here I’ll tell you the 5 numbers you NEED to track in order to know what is going on in your business.

Why track at all?

Why not just do the work and let the numbers work themselves out? When you don’t track, you don’t know the true story of your business. On a good day you will feel that your business is doing well, and on a bad day you’ll feel that your business is failing. Tracking these numbers will help you step back, feel grounded, and see the real story. When you have the real story, you can adjust your strategy wisely.

So here are those 5 numbers:

Average number of sessions per month

Keep track of every single session you have, and you’ll be able to calculate this easily. The easiest way is using your appointment calendar. You may already be recording this without realizing it. Add these up at the end of the month and keep a record so you can calculate the average. Consider using a spreadsheet.

Average number of intakes per month

When you see a client for the first appointment (not counting a free consultation), note that in your calendar so that you know how many people are coming into your practice. Calculate this average over time.

Average fee

Write down the fee you charge for every single session, and you’ll be able to calculate this monthly. The easiest way is to record it in your appointment calendar, and then calculate at the end of the month on that spreadsheet.

Average number of Inquiries per month

These are the calls and emails that come in from potential clients. The easiest way to track this is using a spread sheet. On that spread sheet, have a column for each of these things: date they contacted you, name (You need to keep this spreadsheet in such a way that the identities of the people are totally protected), referral source (how they found you), and current status (playing phone tag? scheduled an appointment?). The headings will look like this:

Date, Name, Source, Status

You’ll know what practice building methods are working best,  and you’ll know for sure that no calls or emails are falling through the cracks.

Expenses per month

Track every practice expense. Consider using an online program to make this tracking easy. For a simple therapy practice, programs like mint work fine. When you know exactly what your practice costs to run, you know how much you need to earn just to pay those bills. You can also look at your expenses and cut out anything you’re not using. If you don’t track your expenses, you’re very likely to miss a bunch of deductions at tax time.

When you’ve been tracking those 5 things for a while:

You’ll see more clearly when your efforts are working. For example, if you’ve been working hard on marketing and your monthly income hasn’t gone up, take a look at your inquiries per month. If that number is going up, you’re probably going in the right direction and the impact hasn’t hit your bank account yet.

You’ll see what isn’t working. Let’s say you’ve been basing your projected income on how many sessions you THINK you have each month. If you discover you have a lower average number of appointments per month than you thought, you might adjust your schedule. Maybe you’ll discover that you need to have 20 openings in order to have an average of 15 sessions per week.

Next week I'll answer the question: Why aren't my practice building efforts working?!

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#8

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#8: What kind of website works to attract clients?

Once your potential client is on your site, what works to attract them to your practice? (You also need to be concerned about getting people TO your site, but that is a different topic). I’ll give you 5 places where therapists often mess up, and how to do them right.

1.     A great headline

You need to reach your client in the moment when they are in pain, looking for a therapist. You need to know who you work best with and enjoy working with the most, and create your headline to speak directly to that person. This headline will be a question or a statement that speaks to what they are feeling or needing in the moment when they are searching for you.  For example, you don’t want your headline to be “My office is a safe place.” That’s not speaking to their pain. Your headline will be something closer to: “Do you feel like depression has taken the energy and hope out of your life?” Your headline as well as the rest of your website will NOT speak to everyone, and it shouldn’t.

2.     A great photo

The photo is even more important than the headline. Your photo should be warm, welcoming, and show that you’re happy to be doing this work. Look at the camera and smile in a way that is natural. Think about someone or something that makes you happy so that you capture your real smile. Hire a photographer who has some headshots you like. It is an investment, and it will pay off. If you’re in the bay area, check out Portraits to the People. They photograph a lot of therapists and make the experience painless.

3.     A clear call to action

Tell your potential client what to do next. Make it clear that the next step is to sign up for a free consultation, or to call you or email you. Make that bold and easy to follow. Don’t hide your phone number at the bottom of the page in fine print. I recommend having a clear place they can click to set up a consultation. It can either lead them to an online scheduler or to a contact submission form on your site. These are actions people can take in the moment when they are on your site.

4.     The 80/20 rule

Eighty percent of the content on your site should be about your client: their experience, their pain, and the hope they are looking for. Only twenty percent of the content should be about you: your methods, your credentials, and why you’re the best therapist for them. They want to know that you get them and what they are dealing with.

5.     Your superpower

Your site should reflect who you are. Your superpower is that thing that makes you different from every other therapist out there. Make sure that your site reflects that. Let it come out in the way you write, in your photo, in your about me page, and even in the colors you choose.  Don’t avoid turning some people off. That’s part of attracting the clients who are right for YOU.

Next week I’ll answer the question: What numbers do I need to track in my practice?

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#7

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#7: How Much Money Should I Spend On Marketing?

There's a cycle therapists get stuck in and therefore don’t build their practices. You want to spend what you can afford, so you plan to wait until you have more money before you spend anything on your practice building efforts. The problem is that if you don’t invest in a solid marketing strategy, you won’t make more money. That's not a pretty cycle.

This question needs to be rephrased. The real question is:

How Much Money Should I INVEST in Marketing?

Don’t look at this question from the feeling of fear or scarcity you are experiencing today. We don’t make good business decisions when we’re afraid. Imagine you are successful. You’re bringing in plenty of clients and are being paid well. You’re not just scraping by. You’re making good money. What business decisions would you make from there?

When you continue to not invest in your practice building, you lose out on clients. Let’s say you’re losing out on at least 400 dollars of income per week by NOT investing more in your practice building. (For most people the amount is higher.) You’re losing around 18,000 or 19,000 every year. Can you afford to lose out on that money?

How should you spend that practice building money?

You need to invest your practice building dollars in a way that follows a strategy. Don’t just throw some money at marketing here and there. Get clear on the practice you really want, and get support to create a strategy designed to get you that practice.

Rather than thinking about the cost, consider the likely return on investment for each practice building item. Do the math on how many new clients you’d need to bring in to pay for each item. If it fits your strategy and brings you closer to the practice you want, take the leap. Then take full advantage of the investments you make. Whether it is a directory listing, a google adwords campaign, improving your website, help from a business coach, or an email marketing service, make the investment and then make full use of that investment.

When should you cut back on how much you’re investing in marketing?

The only time to invest less in marketing is when your practice is full and you don’t have a desire to expand or leverage your expertise. When the economy is not doing well, or when your practice is on a downswing, that is the time to invest MORE. That’s the time when some other therapists may be cutting back, and you need to stay the course. It is a great time for you to look at your practice building strategy, figure out what’s been most effective and do MORE of that. 

Next week I'll answer the question: What kind of website works to attract clients?

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#6

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#6: How Much Time Should I Spend On Marketing?

How badly do you want and need your private practice to succeed? Answer that question before you schedule your practice building time. Let’s say you want your practice to succeed very badly, and you want to build it quickly. If you want to have between 15 to 25 sessions per week, and you have less than 10 clients now, you should spend about 16 hours a week building your practice. If you don’t have that kind of time, you’ll have to reach that goal more slowly.

Let’s say your practice is near the level you want it to be, but you need a few more full fee clients. You may not need 16 hours a week. Commit to spending at least a few hours a week on practice building, and don’t let anything keep you from that commitment.

If you only have a few hours a week and you really need to build your practice quickly, here’s what I would advise: find more time.

What should you spend that time ON?

You need to spend this time on practice building activities. These activities include things like:

• Contacting colleagues to network
• Networking one on one
• Attending networking events
• Following up with colleagues you had contact with
•  Improving website copy
• Blogging
• Writing articles for publications
• Contacting people about speaking to their groups
• Preparing for or doing public speaking
• Working on SEO
• Creating or managing paid advertising
• Participating on list serves and/or social media
• Creating and sending a newsletter

Don’t fool yourself by spending your practice building time only reading about marketing, making lists about marketing, and thinking about marketing. That may feel comfortable, but it doesn’t build your practice. You’ve got to actually do things.

You’ve got to be consistent.

One way to make your practice building time count is to schedule your time and use the same methods over and over again. Create a strategy and stick with it for at least 6 months. For example, don’t try public speaking once or twice and then decide it didn’t work and took too much time and effort. You can build a private practice using public speaking as your main method, but only when you follow through with a consistent strategy. This is true for every method of practice building.    

Without the right mindset, most of that time will go to waste.

The other factor for making your time count is all about mindset. Use self care strategies, talk to people who help you feel good about yourself, talk to people who are entrepreneurial, listen to your favorite podcast, take a walk to clear your mind, do whatever you need to do in order to get into a positive mindset about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Don’t spend your practice building time feeling discouraged, frightened and desperate and expect anything positive to come out of it. Get clear on your vision of the practice you want and need, get clear on your value to your future clients, and go!

You don’t have to do this alone. I can help you create a strategy that will work, and I can help you stay accountable. I am completely committed to helping you follow through and create the practice you deserve.

Next week I'll answer this question: How much money should I spend on marketing?

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#5

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#5: Does My Marketing Have to Be Cheesy?

This is one thing I love about working with therapists: We tend to place a high value on integrity and authenticity. If that is you, you’re in the right place.

Web copy is a different kind of writing.

When you are creating written material for your website, you need to get comfortable with a completely different kind of writing. The purpose of the copy on your website and the purpose of the articles you wrote in grad school or the articles you might write for professional journals now is totally different. The skill set is different too.

The purpose of the copy on your site is to reach your ideal client quickly in the very moment when they are looking for your help.

You need to show your potential client that you understand what they are going through and help them to feel a connection with you. You need to speak to what your ideal client is thinking and feeling in that moment. You also have to be willing to expose a bit about your personality.

This can be hard to get used to.

This kind of writing is more vulnerable and open than you might be used to. It is a lot more like talking than it is like the writing you’ve done before. It isn’t the place for professional jargon or showing how much you know. If you’re feeling self-conscious and you’re picturing your most judgmental and sarcastic colleague reading your site, you will probably feel that your web copy is cheesy or dumbed-down. Expect this process to feel uncomfortable and remember the purpose and audience.

Here’s an example. John Gottman has done over 40 years of research on relationships. He’s written several books for clinicians. He also runs the Gottman Institute with his wife and business partner Julie Gottman, providing Couples Therapy and Couples Workshops to thousands of couples every year. The home page on their site features copy like this: “the fastest way to better relationships.”  On their page for therapists you see this: “research-based professional instruction and resources.” They know who their audience is in each situation. They are not trying to impress other therapists on their home page.

Dare to write directly to your future clients. They are your audience. Be wary of asking other therapists what they think of your marketing materials. They have the same biases you do. If you need support in this process, contact me. I am a therapist, so I know what you’re going through. You don’t have to do this alone. 

Next week I'll answer the question: How much time should I spend on marketing?

The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me...#4

This is part of a series of blog posts: The Top 10 Questions Therapists Ask Me.

#4: Do I Have to Have A Niche?

Usually when therapists ask me this question, they are afraid that choosing a niche or a specialty will limit the clients they get to work with. They fear that they won’t get enough clients because they will exclude so many people.

What I see happen over and over again is that therapists who don’t choose a niche struggle for longer and work harder to build their practices. Often they fail. Therapists who choose a niche and focus their marketing efforts in that direction have much less work to do.

I am defining a niche here as a problem or a population. Sometimes a niche will encompass both. For example, infidelity is a problem. Couples are a population. A niche could be infidelity, couples, or couples dealing with infidelity.

Having a niche makes your marketing easier.

You stand out to other professionals. 

Let’s pretend you are meeting 2 different therapists at an event.

One says:  “I like to work with a lot of women, but also with some men, both individuals and couples. Sometimes I work with adolescents too. I help people work through their relationship issues and recover from past traumas. I also work a lot with people recovering from depression, and I work with people dealing with anxiety a lot too.”

The next says: “I specialize in helping people recover from depression.”

Then you’ll go on to meet many more therapists before the day is over. Who will you remember at the end of the day? Most of us would remember the person who only mentioned depression. Our minds do a lot of filtering to avoid overwhelm, and we do better with less information at one time.

All your marketing efforts are competing with a smaller number of therapists.

You can be among a small number of therapists known for the particular work you do. This works when clients are finding you on the internet and when they are looking for you through referral.

Here’s an example: Think for a moment about who you know who specializes in work with adolescents. Now think for a moment about who you know who works with everyone.

Your first list was shorter, right?

You can also try doing an internet search for “therapist” with your zip code “therapist for adolescents” with your zip code. Those therapists who specialize in working with adolescents have had a much easier time showing up on the first page in that search.

You can establish your status as an expert in your niche quickly.

You can blog, speak, give workshops, and have one on one conversations about your area of expertise. You can be the go-to person for your colleagues about your niche. You can’t do that as a generalist. 

But what about that fear that you’ll be limiting your practice?

It doesn’t work that way. Many therapists who market themselves in a particular niche actually have general practices. Others find you through word of mouth. When your clients and other professionals know that you’re a good therapist doing good work, they refer you all sorts of clients and issues.

In my therapy practice I have only marketed to couples for over seven years, and a large percentage of my practice is individuals.

Many people who market only to LGBTQ clients also end up seeing many straight identified people too.

But how do I choose?

You need to choose something that you feel excited about. You should feel like you could write or speak about this topic every day and not feel bored by it. Make your niche narrow enough that you aren’t trying to include everyone, but wide enough that you have enough to say. This will be a commitment for a few years, not forever. You may change your niche at some point in your career as other things become more interesting to you.

Choosing a niche can be tricky, and I don't want you to get stuck in that process. I can help you to make sure you're making a choice that is both interesting to you and also profitable. Set up a free phone consultation now. 

Next week I will answer question #5: Does my marketing have to be cheesy?